July 04, 2009 07:25 pm The DNA of commerce is to discover the best vehicle for sellers to create an introduction that is clever, impressionable and, most importantly, a feel-good experience for the target buyer. After all, mastering how to connect those dots results in increasing sales that translates into corporate success. Success provides the momentum to differentiate yourself by plotting a course toward the upper right quadrant of market domination; a rising star. For many this is achieved by subtle, unnoticeable adjustments or back-end development shifts within a competitive corporate landscape. Star companies have perfected these realignments without setting off alarms to their competition. Stealthy readjustments are healthy and critical to eliminate dog-eat-dog scenarios. To bring this to life can be examined through two lenses, the cause and the effect. The heavily reported effect is Microsoft's Bing search engine. To understand Bing's cause, Frost would say, "is to walk the road less traveled." The appropriate mantra that needs to be addressed is, "know thy self; know thy competition." As technology continues its swirling metamorphosis, product positioning can make or break companies. There is a selected assembly of gatekeepers that have ascended to guard the pillars of entry to this upper right quadrant of success, known as the Gartner Magic Quadrant. Google and Microsoft have co-existed for over 10 years. Two of the biggest technology trendsetters have locked horns at a pivotal point, which can be heard as a quiet rumble along the technology fault line running from Mountain View, Calif., up to Redmond, Wash. Pressure has been mounting ever since the release of Microsoft's new, improved search engine capabilities. Google's CEO Eric Schmidt's public relations strategy has been to boisterously downplay the significance of MSFT's new search capabilities. In part, Microsoft's Bing unveiling is a defensive strategy that has been kept out of the spotlight. The action is an off-stride blow to stun and slow Google's R&D schedule of its Android operating systems, and further, to rein in future releases of Google's operating system (OS) to the PC and mobile markets. An operating system (OS) can be summed up as being responsible for all coordination of a PC's recourses and the management of its software applications. To control the OS enables control over the direction of computing, the crown jewel of data flow. Essentially, the functional importance of an OS on a computer could be compared to a raw bicycle frame -- good luck riding down the street. Bing's unveiling was released one week prior to Google's June 3 joint venture announcement with Acer computer. The deal was sealed with the agreement to introduce Google's Android OS on select Acer PCs, a true corporate milestone for Google's product line. Not so good for Microsoft, hence the birth of Bing as a preventative measure to prevent further erosion of Microsoft's Windows OS market share. Bing's launch can be mentally digested as a Microsoft OS insurance policy, nothing more. The strategy is to devalue Google traffic and have adoption of a completely different search psychology. In this case, different is good. Microsoft's macro philosophy is to search the entire Web, every corner, then tell me what I find, which is somewhat liberating from Google's "Adwords." The computer science behind Microsoft's approach is a Federated Search, and Google is not doing this. Now, Microsoft's search services are structurally more stable, reliable and scaleable for growth, which functions as market insulation planning by Microsoft's executives. Redmond, Wash., put money where its mouth is by co-launching a $100 million marketing blitz for Bing's debut. The competitiveness of the advertising campaign is reminiscent of the epic beverage battles between Coke and Pepsi. The mobile OS is A1 critical in the future technology field, as Palm Pre has proven with its Linux OS success. Pre's sales alone have forecasters putting Palm in the green for year-end. I believe Microsoft executives will quantify their program's success by closely tracking Bing downloads to your toolbars in place of Google. Time will tell the story ... in the meantime, it should keep Google's top minds off of operating systems. PCs are a vicious market. Ryan Peters is a local technology columnist. He can be reached via e-mail at contactryan@wordpress.com.
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