Where Technology Really Comes From

David Card | November 04, 2005, 09:50 AM

Colleague Michael Gartenberg links to "reformed" arch-fiend Henry Blodget on Microsoft v. Google. Is that a twinkle of irony in your eye, Michael?

Henry Blodget - Microsoft and Google are essentially in two different businesses and that, unless one or the other company goes insane, they'll stay that way. Microsoft is in the enterprise software business (platforms and aps paid for by companies) and Google is in the consumer web business (paid for by advertising)

Blodget is right, sort of, but he's all wet, all the same.

First of all, Microsoft doesn't acknowledge that it's not in the consumer Internet business. Rightly so. The consumer Internet is more important than the corporate Internet. In fact, it's more important than enterprise IT in terms of innovation. Consumer Web apps are driving a lot of technologies that will show up in enterprise IT platforms. Presence and identity management - IM. Multiuser scalability - eBay, Amazon, etc. User Interface - browsers and now search. Syndicated services & modern distributed computing - RSS, Ajax, etc. Real-time marketplaces - Google, eBay. All driven by the consumer Internet.