
Q and A with Ballmer Discussing Bing - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/technology/companies/29ballmer.html
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brown9-2
I'm waiting for the point where Microsoft realizes that by continually playing
catch-up in things like "search", they're doing nothing but burning tons of
cash and getting no where fast.

Are the ad profits really that lucrative? Because from the outside it sounds
like they waste a lot of time/money/effort on projects like this that are
always destined to fail.

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pj
I'm not sure it is destined to fail. Do you think search _can't_ be done
better than Google can do it? I am certain it can.

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adamhowell
I'm certain a better search won't come from a top-down corporation like
Microsoft.

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adamhowell
With some of the Live stuff it -- for a short time at least -- seemed like
Microsoft was finally starting to realize that the web is different than
packaged software, and that instead of hyping a product like this while it's
still "Coming soon," you should launch small and iterate.

When you buy a pre-marketed Office 20XX, you're stuck with Office 20XX -- when
you try out a hyped up Cui...I mean Bing, you laugh and search Google to see
if anybody's ridiculed it yet.

But, I guess since the Live stuff failed so badly that they have to continue
working on stuff like Bing and buying companies like Powerset, they've decided
to blame the process and go back to their tried and true web mantra of
"promise veal, deliver a poop sandwich".

~~~
sahaj
because of the slow economy and less people purchasing new computers,
microsoft is gonna have a very hard time pushing this to users, as it is a not
default search engine of a default bundled browser.

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malvim
Sorry, I haven't read TFA, and I don't know what Bing is about. It might even
be something worth taking a look at. Maybe.

But seriously... Bing? BING? Come on, they can do better than that.

"It's Gaelic for 'thy turkey is done'"

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TweedHeads
babble, rabble, optimism, babble, super interesting, rabble, babble,
opportunity, wabble, innovation...

wait, he said innovation?

he got me there for a moment, hahaha

