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Thread: Gates: Rivals Can't Match Search Integration With Microsoft Platform, Services

  1. #1
    Microsoft launched a counter-attack against Google by touting plans for a broad enterprise information management (EIM) platform anchored by search and web services.
    At his 10th annual CEO Summit Wednesday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates hinted the software giant will crush Google in the same way that it crushed Netscape -- by integrating enterprise search deeply into Windows Vista, Office 2007, Outlook 2007 and SharePoint 2007 and with the rest of the Windows platform and also with emerging web services from Microsoft.

    Microsoft's multifaceted search platform, which includes Vista Search, Sharepoint Enterprise Search, Windows Live Search and an enhanced web search, cannot be matched by rivals because it harnesses other Windows services such as workflow and BI. This will enable users not only to search and find corporate data but analyze it, act on it in a logical way and share it with colleagues, Gates said.

    For example, end users can analyze the results of SharePoint Search or Outlook 2007 search, analyze it with Microsoft's business intelligence tools and act on it through Office-based workflow-enabled business processes or enterprise instant messaging.

    "This is the last mile of productivity," Gates said, noting that the ability to search across the corporate desktop, network, intranet, and Internet services from a common user interface will help reduce or eliminate information overload affecting knowledge workers.

    Microsoft "is digging the ditch" with its next wave of client and server platform products and web services due in 2007, Gates said. Windows Live Search will go into testing in the second half of 2006.

    "The key differentiating thing is how the information is presented," Gates said during his keynote, noting that it's not enough to do business intelligence well, or search well, or portal well, but to allow these services to "feed off each other" and provide information in context to end users.

    During Gates' keynote, one Microsoft product manager demonstrated new search in Outlook 2007, the ability to search across multiple PCs, find documents and share with other people using Office Communicator enterprise instant messaging client.
    He also demonstrated how users can search and find relevant information and use the check-in and check-out capabilities of SharePoint 2007 to store the document or subsume it into a workflow process that is routed to other end users.

    Microsoft also unveiled Wednesday plans for Office SharePoint Server for Search 2007 for midsized businesses as well as departments within corporations. The product will be a subset of the full SharePoint Server 2007.

    Microsoft also unveiled the Office SharePoint Server Business Data Catalog that allows end users to search across structured data from SAP or Siebel and other line-of-business applications and a Knowledge Network for Office Sharepoint Server 2007 that finds expertise and people of interest by automatically searching profiles on the network.

    On-premise software is only part of the Microsoft EIM platform.

    Gates told CEOs that Microsoft is investing $6 billion in fiscal 2007 on search, web services and hosted services.

    Gates predicted that most companies will use a mix of on-premise software and off-premise web services such as Microsoft's Windows Live Search or Virtual Earth and hosted services from third party ISVs and solution providers.

    He said customers and partners will be able to harness Microsoft's web services such as Virtual Earth and Windows Live Search to complement the on-premise infrastructure.

    In the future, for example, Microsoft will offer a user-centric service that keeps track of user profiles and preferences and makes it available to instantly provision laptops, tablet PCs, mobile phones for workers both on and off premise.

    "It will take several years for that, but you need commonality to make it easy to move between devices," Gates said

  2. #2
    Not quite sure about microsoft's desktop (live?) search but here is where msn stands at the web:

    According to statistics, Google received 91 million American searches per day in the month of March 2006. Their closest rival, Yahoo, managed 60 million and MSN, in third place racked up only 28 million searches per day in the same period

    As far as their 'aggressive' statements are concerned; How can you, Mr. Gates forget about firefox, desktop search by google, gmail and rest of the 'show-stoppers' ? They have nailed your products down!!
    Dream, I do.

  3. #3
    U go it a bit wrong Endurer...He is forecasting this in liu of Vista..

    What all we see now is just builds and beta if u ask me..

    Micrsoft is aiming huge with Vista..Count on it>>

    Gates has something wicked in mind..

  4. #4
    I saw vista coming here way back in 2005:

    http://www.desitwist.com/kb.php?mode=article&k=29

    There is nothing special about it, just a better look combined with their virtual folders feature.

    What do you say?
    Dream, I do.

  5. #5
    not completely..Thats just the Theme u see..

    I mean thats the common leaked out stuff ..it appears on all magzines as i hav seen...

    Vista is centered around a different kind of statics ...Its not them who win this time..It going to be us...

    All competitors will go down in the drain..
    i am no a big fan of gates or anything...

    There will be revolutionary options to look out for.almost inbreakable security and more of internet enabled functions...

    Just last week they released the latest beta Longorn in the Micrsoft Workshop...

    Build 5048

  6. #6
    I will have to wait and test it myself. Lets see if it's worth all the hype.
    Dream, I do.

  7. #7
    Sounds like Microsoft is trying hard to save its face. I doubt if they can comeup with better search engine than google, in just six months. Lets wait for the result.

  8. #8
    Microsoft on Tuesday announced a delay of Windows Vista that will mean PCs with the new operating system won't go on sale until January.

    The software maker said it will still wrap up development of the operating system this year and make it available to volume-licensing customers in November. However, Microsoft said a delay of a few weeks in Vista's schedule meant that some PC makers would be able to launch this year and others would not. As a result, Windows chief Jim Allchin said the company is delaying the broad launch of the product until January.

    "We needed just a few more weeks, and that put us in a bubble...where some partners would be impacted more than others," Allchin said during a Tuesday afternoon conference call with reporters and analysts.

    The delay is the latest setback for Vista. Microsoft scaled back several key features of the operating system last year in order to try to ensure a 2006 release. The operating system, which has been in development for years, was delayed by, among other things, the fact that Microsoft had to put so much time and testing effort into Windows XP Service Pack 2, a largely security-oriented upgrade to the current version of Windows.

    Allchin said that although PC makers were not universal in wanting the delay, there were concerns from some companies that they could not ensure a holiday quarter launch if Microsoft pushed back its development schedule even slightly.

    Analysts have been warning that Microsoft's schedule left little room for error if it was to make a fourth-quarter launch.

    As recently as January, Allchin expressed confidence that Microsoft would make its deadline, although he reiterated his caveat that quality issues could lead to a postponement.

    The delay would likely hurt retail PC vendors the most, said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD Techworld. Dell, which sells most of its PCs directly, could probably handle a delay of a few weeks without too much trouble. Hewlett-Packard and Gateway, on the other hand, have to have their PCs ready for retail partners weeks ahead of when they will actually go on sale, and can't change gears as quickly, he said.

    "It scares you," Baker said, when asked about the impact of the delay on fourth-quarter PC sales. The PC industry's largest quarter of the year always comes around the holiday shopping season, and expectations were high for that period this year, given the expected introduction of the new operating system.

    Microsoft does not expect the move to affect this year's overall PC sales, Allchin said.

    "There's no (change) to the PC forecast from our perspective," he said. "You can ask the partners what they think."

    Allchin also said the product will still launch in the same earnings period for Microsoft, whose fiscal year runs from July to June. That means Microsoft's overall business for next year shouldn't be affected, he said.

    Tweaks in the works
    Allchin said some of the additional time would be used to ensure security levels, and the company is also working on ironing out usability issues.

    "We're trying to crank up the security level higher than ever," Allchin said. "This came down to a few weeks. We're trying to do the responsible thing here."

    ___==-Vista's changing vista

    Tuesday's delay in the release of Vista wasn't supposed to happen. In 2004
    Microsoft specifically removed a key ingredient, called WinFS, from the new operating system so that it could assure PC makers of delivery of the OS for the crucial holiday selling season. Here are quotes on Vista's schedule from two top Microsoft executives:

    "Anyway, we've been through the plan with (PC makers), and this plan is very good in the sense that they're glad to see Longhorn coming into focus, they're glad to see the commitment to the date, and the hardware kind of supports things that they want are in their plans."
    --Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, August 2004
    "Getting 'Longhorn' to customers in 2006 will provide important advances in performance, security and reliability, and will help accelerate the creation of exciting new applications by developers across the industry."
    --Gates, August 2004
    "We are very focused to make next year. We're not going to skimp on quality, but we are very focused to make next year."
    --Windows chief Jim Allchin, July 2005
    "We still feel very good we can get it to broad availability this year. (But) if the team gets in trouble about quality, I will delay this product."
    --Allchin, January 2006
    "We needed just a few more weeks, and that put us in a bubble...where some partners would be impacted more than others."
    --Allchin, March 2006

    There u see..goes the delay ..So JAN 07

  9. #9
    They are delaying it since quite some time now. I hope it's worth all the wait.
    Dream, I do.

  10. #10
    We'll wait and debate it later!!

    For NOW __Lets just dicuss technological advancements in Vista!!

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