Microsoft-Google Slugfest Continues
    Another week, another set of stories on Microsoft and Google. This week, Microsoft 
  threw another jab at its dominant search rival with the 
purchase 
  of Jellyfish, an online shopping company of some sort. Really, we just like 
  this story because it contains the following direct quote:
  "We purchased Jellyfish.com," Microsoft search and advertising 
    platform group vice president Alex Gounares said in a written reply to an 
    AFP inquiry.
Wow, AFP, thanks for keeping things in perspective for us! We might never have 
  understood what was happening if you hadn't quoted Gounares directly. Anyway, 
  the more interesting story about the industry's hottest rivalry concerns Microsoft 
  backing 
  off of its antitrust stance regarding the Google-DoubleClick deal. Again, 
  we quote from the story linked, this time from Reuters:
  "The question is not for Microsoft to have specific views (on this 
    deal)...As in all markets, it is for the regulator to see if the competition 
    is right," Jean-Philippe Courtois, head of Microsoft International, told 
    journalists in Paris.
  Last week, Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said Google's deal 
    would make the Web search company "the overwhelmingly dominant pipeline 
    for all forms of advertising" and it would be "bad for consumers."
Well, never mind, then! Perhaps Microsoft has decided to keep its mouth shut 
  on antitrust issues given last month's unfavorable ruling from a European Court. 
  Or maybe Courtois was just being courteous -- which, if we remember correctly, 
  is what his name means in French.
On the Google side of the fight, the new princes of Silicon Valley are beefing 
  up their corporate e-mail offering. The fight goes on.
 
	
Posted by Lee Pender on October 04, 2007