Microsoft counters Google
The battle between Google and Microsoft is heating up on many fronts. Google Apps are slowly taking business away from Microsoft Office. Gmail has had immense success. Microsoft's unpopular Vista operating systems is being shunned by corporate IT departments, who are starting to think that the Google approach of cloud computing (Web-based apps). All this because Google has managed to, so far, avoided the trap of being big: it's employees are innovative, its managers receptive to innovation, and the turnaround time on online apps (no packaging and distribution, a willing base of testers) makes it infinitely more agile than innovation-challenged Microsoft.
So Microsoft tries to catch up by buy small firms with good ideas. Last spring, it acquired online advertising firm aQuantive in order to contest Google's supremacy in that area. This month it is a company U.K. mapping company Multimap for an undisclosed price.
According to the Wall Street Journal (" Acquisition to Expand Microsoft's Map Services," 12/13/07), the company "is one of Europe's most popular mapping Web sites and is also available on mobile phones and personal digital assistants. It provides street-level maps, photography and travel directions to users in the U.K., Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S."
In other words Microsoft is going directly against Google Maps and Google Earth, According to the WSJ story, the two Google service have nearly 100 million visitors, a month, far higher than 7 million who visited Microsoft's Live Maps and the 1.4 Multimap visitors.
The thought is that Microsoft wanted the technology not only to expand Live Maps outside the US, but also to build on its software and use it with its digital ad services, in order to allow clients to sell localized hotel, restaurant, and service sales and reservations, for example.
10:21:34 PM 
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