Lately, there's been a lot of talk about who's more innovative - Microsoft or Google. I know what the general opinion among many average home users is - "it's Google." Let me try to prove why this is false and the only reason that makes you think Google is more innovative is out of a fake sense of loyalty towards Google because it has (for free), in many occasions helped you search for stuff online, complete projects and meet critical deadlines in time. But wait, there's more to it!
Before I start (screwing), I would like you to read Google's company description and Microsoft's company description on Google's own Finance section:
Google: "Google Inc. maintains an index of websites and other online content, and makes this information freely available through its search engine to anyone with an Internet connection. It generates revenue primarily by delivering online advertising." (Advertising revenue percentage is approximately 95%-97%).
Microsoft: "Microsoft Corporation is engaged in developing, manufacturing, licensing and supporting a range of software products and services. Its software products and services include operating systems for personal computers, servers and intelligent devices, server applications for distributed computing environments; information worker productivity applications; business solutions applications; computing applications; software development tools, and video games."
The above descriptions pretty much summarize the domains in which the respective companies rule the roost - Google with search and Microsoft with the rest of the computing world. This does not prove a lot, but I thought it would be a nice soft start to my killer finish.
The flat fact here is that Google sucks at innovation. Every project it ever started, users either threw them right into the Recycle Bin (and where they never got recycled) or was shut down by Google citing 'lack of general interest'. To name a few of them are - Google Buzz, Google Wave, Friend Connect, Google Desktop, Google Base (still in beta), Google Checkout, Google Toolbar, Google Latitude, Google Pack, etc. [Source: ZDNet]
I exactly know what you must be thinking now - "This author is an idiot. What about AdSense, YouTube, Android, Google Docs, Google Talk, Blogger, Picasa, Google Maps or Google Earth? Were they not innovation?" To which I'd say - "They were, but not Google's." All these products that I've listed in this paragraph were ALL acquired by Google from other companies. See this list of companies that Google acquired on Wikipedia and you'll be shocked to know that most of the 'Google' we know today is not actually not Google. People don’t know this because most of them are just happy go lucky average home users. They just see "I love YouTube, it belongs to Google, Google rocks!" But all that Google does is - buy a company that is doing something good, integrate the new service with Google accounts and throw it on your face. Google only did two things right till date - the Search & Gmail (PS: I'm assuming that Gmail was not acquired because I don't see it listed on Wikipedia as acquired). To sum up the whole paragraph I would just say "Google buys a house, paints it blue, and presents it to you."
"Ok, this was Google's side. What about Microsoft? Is Microsoft Innovative?" A straight fact - Microsoft is definitely innovative, but also way more innovative than Google. Now again - the problem here is that people see Microsoft only as Windows + Office (which is not free), but it's not so. Apart from the awesome Windows and Office combination, there's Kinect for XBOX, XBOX 360, Microsoft Surface, Exchange, Outlook, System Center, Forefront, Lync (OCS v2.0), SharePoint, SQL Server, Windows Azure, Office 365 (BPOS v2.0), Visual Studio, Silverlight, XNA, Robotic Studio, Expression Studio, Photosynth, DeepZoom, the gigantic .NET development environment, Halo, Age of Empires, Windows Phone, Zune, Bing, etc. I could just go on and on and on. This is not all, this is just what I know and trust me, I know very little.
Things that Microsoft Research does is so high-end and cutting-edge, that most of it is out of my ability to even comprehend. Just so that you get an idea, here is a Microsoft Research Project (Digital Narratives) that allows you to deep zoom into a paused full HD video, navigate the surrounding 360 degrees (even those regions that are off screen or out of screen frame) and resume after exploring the whole area in the video. All this is done right from scratch by dedicated, hard-working and highly technically equipped Microsoft employees spanning across the globe. Is this not innovation? I think it is. But just to be fair here is a list of companies Microsoft acquired. Only Hotmail and Visio are the popular service/product we use were not originally developed by Microsoft - but then they were totally revamped to the Microsoft standard. Compare both the lists and decide for yourself who is more innovative. You know when your father says "Technology is moving very fast, my son." People like those at Microsoft are responsible for it.
The Survival Test
"Ok, then why is there a common notion of Google being cooler?". Simple - as I already mentioned in the very beginning that Google serves you with web results for free and Microsoft charges you for their software. But what people don't get is that Google uses targeted advertising for their source of revenue. That's why. Imagine using Windows OS with advertisements - you plug in a USB stick and see a pop up "Kingston Pen Drives for Sale, just for $8.99!! Click here to buy now!" Would you like it? No, right.
The thing to be understood here is that every company has it's own bread and butter products that generate income which enables the company to sustain existence. Ask Google to serve results without advertisements or Microsoft to make Windows Open Source - none would agree to do it. That's how the business model is. Ultimately, the consumers pay for a demand to be met and the companies earn - in one way or the other.
To make things interesting, imagine a hypothetical scenario: Imagine the world for one day without Google - anyone could still do most of their work and search on Bing, use Hotmail instead of Gmail and watch videos on a DVD instead on YouTube. Not a very difficult life. Now imagine the world for one day without any Microsoft software - No Windows OS, no enterprise software, no Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Imagine the millions of businesses that run on Microsoft software all coming to an abrupt halt. Right from the supermarket next door to billion dollar enterprises like HCL, IBM, Yahoo!, etc. Imagine computers at airports that run Windows - all coming to a sudden stop. ATMs that facilitate cash withdrawals 24x7 refusing to spill cash. As good as the 2012 apocalypse, right?
You can survive without Google, but not Microsoft. Period. That is the impact of Microsoft software on the world. Microsoft is like Oxygen and Google like ice-cream. Everyone likes ice-cream but take oxygen for granted. Google is like a 16 year old teenager who thinks he is smarter than his dad, but ultimately - Microsoft is the Big Daddy and will always be. Google is an accessory, Microsoft is a necessity.
It's not over yet: Coming tomorrow weekend special - "Google Wonder Blunders". Stay tuned!