Has Google Created A Monster?

And then something more interesting happens (or, more accurately, is happening). Everybody’s favorite mountain to blast, Microsoft, has been blasted so low that they’re an unexpected underdog.

Or, to mix my metaphors further in honor of the upcoming Kentucky Derby, Microsoft is (it’s so strange to say I doubt it each time) the dark horse.

Now I’ve never been one to hype the power and potential of Google – oh wait, yeah, I have, lots of times. But it’s especially eerie to watch those prognostications come alive, especially as we all championed it all along. Everyone has sensed it for some time, that Google could and probably will, permeate all aspects of our lives.

Google Search, Google Ads, Google TV, Google Movies, Google Newspapers, Google park benches, Google satellites, Google ISP. Expect to see that brand on the side of a lot more property to come.

After acquiring DoubleClick, which already has Microsoft and AT&T ironically crying antitrust, there is talk Google is trying to cut News Corp. out of a deal for Dow Jones. And that makes Google followers pause to reassess.

They learned their lesson after not buying MySpace when they had the chance. All this wasn’t too long after Schmidt shrewdly buddied up with Apple – the lowest, hardest punch the company could have thrown at the Beast of Redmond.

Has all that Google hysteria, the IPO, the cheering on, the multi-nationalization, the creeping into every facet of media, the first real challenge Microsoft has faced in a while, combined to create a monster we’re all not certain we can control? Were the French right? Sacre bleu!

I’m not the only one that thinks Microsoft is becoming more endearing to the public than before. Microsoft is a giant we’ve already gotten comfortable dealing with.

Times Online Writer Jonathan Weber calls Microsoft "the great underdog," and expounds on why we need Microsoft in the age of Google.

Google has changed the way of the web in less than ten years. Without a strong Microsoft, its dominance will only increase.

Not that Microsoft doesn’t deserve it. They’ve been the shrewdest competitors the world has seen till now. But Google’s rise to challenge, though we all hoped for it, is getting a bit frightening. Who knew the lighthearted Lego Googtopia would become the fortress that it is?

Weber concludes:

And strange as this would have sounded ten years ago, the industry needs Microsoft to be a viable player in the Web 2.0 world, lest we all be bit players in the universe according to Google.

My only real conclusion:

It’s a strange, strange world when you can think of a company like Microsoft as the underdog.