Google Says It Doesn't Dominate, Microsoft Begs To Differ
In an ongoing public relations effort, Google continues to claim that it holds a relatively small percentage of the worldwide advertising revenue and it doesn't use its power to unseat competition. Because nearly all of its services are free, it has no ability to exclude or block access to competing services, the search engine giant says. And Google's 65 percent market share leaves a whole 35 percent for competitors to scrap over.
Wow.
During a press conference, Google's Dana Wagner, senior counsel, argued that anyone could effectively surpass the company's overwhelming market share -- all they'd have to do is build a superior product, according to The New York Times -- although it's probably a relief that so far no one discernibly has, or if they have, there's little chance of them dethroning Google's domination any time soon.
"Competition is a click away," Mr. Wagner said, as part of a stump speech given in San Francisco, The Times reported.
"We are in an industry that is subject to disruption and we can't take anything for granted," he added.
These arguments are nothing new. Google has posted these arguments online and given them in press conferences around the country. They have become a part of Google's litany for so long that competitors have had ample time to build their case against them.
That's exactly what Microsoft did, according to The Times. At a San Francisco press conference held last week, Google's Wagner was making these arguments when reporters started receiving e-mails on their smartphones from Microsoft, The Times reported. Microsoft was in fact e-mailing rebuttals in real time, countering Wagner's claims to journalists as Wagner was making its case. And consequently, journalists' questions seemed much more skeptical than usual.
Indeed, it would appear that the software giant has taken marketing efforts to new extremes.
But maybe it has nothing to lose. Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, barely comes to the knees of the Google Goliath despite the guerilla warfare tactics and the $80 million the Redmond, Calif.,-based software giant has pumped into marketing efforts.
If Microsoft's latest public relations tactic is any indication of events to come, it would seem that competition promises to be fairly stiff now that Microsoft has a stake in the search engine market with Bing. If anything, it appears to be an amusing ride as viewers watch the two monolithic companies duke it out on the search engine front.
May the best monopoly, er company, win.