Google’s momentum was echoed publicly by both Microsoft and Yahoo today. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, stated that Google is making it difficult for them to recruit top talent. Also, in a move to likely earmark more dollars towards acquisitions, Microsoft increased their research and development budget for 2007 to $7.5 billion, which is $1.3 billion more than they stated in May. Update: Reuters just corrected its original report - $7.5 billion has in fact always been the 2007 allocation, the $6.2 billion number was last year’s R&D budget.
Yahoo made an acquisition and an investment today, which didn’t overshadow the fact that their quarterly profits took a 38% decline. They acknowledged that they face increased competition for online advertising dollars and thus announced plans to further invest in social media, Internet video and mobile access. Last month, Yahoo was reportedly in talks to acquire social networking website Facebook for $1 billion, but those talks went cold with speculation that Facebook is holding out for a higher offer.
Google’s recent YouTube acquisition is just the latest in a series of stings to both Microsoft and Yahoo, leaving many to wonder whether they can compete with Google in the future. Google is everyone’s darling right now — companies would rather be acquired by them (News Corp. sent a letter to YouTube seeking to start talks, but never received a response) and individuals would rather be hired by them (Google recently nabbed Yahoo India’s CTO).
“Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, stated that Google is making it difficult for them to recruit top talent.”
If you had a choice, would YOU rather work for Microsoft?
Yes, I rather work for Microsoft.
You’re a Microsoft employee aren’t you?
Hmm, have the opportunity to work on great products in a free thinking, open source environment or work for Microsoft… Tricky one that
These are the kinds of posts that I expect when I come to techcrunch. Great summary and a good writing style. New writer I am guessing?
I hate to be spamming like this, but if you would like some extra information about previous, present, and future Google poaching, I wrote about it yesterday. I think its very relevant:
Here’s the link:
http://pulse2.com/2006/10/17/g.....nd-future/
On Reuter:
Ballmer said for years Microsoft had faced no competition to recruit staff. “Finally, we have some competition (from Google) for talent,”
Steve distorted it into:
Very different from what you did report “Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, stated that Google is making it difficult for them to recruit top talent”
I don’t know how Steve Ballmer things Google is making it hard for them.
I know of Genious type of developer’s who have been rejected during Google’s hire process, which to me is way overrated. In the end I’ve seen people get hired without even passing the interviews (cause they have frat brothers inside)
Now I just think to myself… what do I gotta do to put my hands on at least 10 million of that 1.3 extra Microsoft is investing in? Seems like its a good time to go pitch some crazy idea with videos-mobiles and social networking to microsoft.
If I had a choice I’d choose Microsoft.
Sadly, I’ve not got the smarts to work at either company. My reasoning is that Google is already ahead of the game. I’d much rather work for a comapny that’s now got to change itself to compete. It would be much more exciting.
Interesting. I have heard other companies are having a hard time recruiting talent - not just Yahoo and Microsoft but others. I don’t know if it means they’re all going to Google, if there just isn’t a lot of good talent out there or what, but that’s interesting. It’s a good time, then, to be an engineer.
Is it sure, that the Webmarket is such a monopolistic type? Is it 100 percent that we have to perveive things in a blockbuster way? One superhero, Batman in one corner, and 2 villains Joker/Mad Hatter in the other? Yes, competitiveness matters, but it is not necessary to see the world through this only channel even if big bucks are on the table.
I think Google’s corporate culture would be much more creative and interesting to work in than Microsoft’s.
Of course, Google is in everyone’s heart.
But, Google should be carefull of an internal disorder.
Google does seem to be a darling. I think the world is just thankful they started Adsense.
Of course there is more to Google than Adsense
I don’t know if I’d choose Google or Microsoft, but I’m not that enthusiastic about Google and its open source based system.
If you pay attention to their doing they’re launching projects that give them more and more information about your habits, behaviours, tastes & co.
That’s true that you don’t have to pay, but we shouldn’t be naive, they don’t do that just to please us. The more you use their technology, the more they know about you.
Google has impressively maintained their entrepreneurial spirit as they continue to grow and grow. With a massive head count and a maturing core product line it is truly a testament to the culture they have created that they are still able to attract so many of the best people.
While profits are through the roof, they still feel young, purposeful, and empowered, compared to the seemingly stogy lumbering giant in Redmond.
Google’s taking a bath with YouTub
http://www.cafepress.com/youtub
AOL was once in a similar position to where Google is now — the hot company, the hot stock, acquiring lots of small companies, getting all the buzz.
Google’s not AOL, of course, but things can (and will) change over time. Why everyone forgets that every time a company is hot (e.g. Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple) eludes me.
The bigger and more fun question is, “Who’s next?”
No one should have difficulties to find talent. They just have the difficulties to recognize talent. When the talent knock the door, they said ” Go away, smart people does not knock my door.”
The main thing in this battle that competition always has bonuses for users.
I love Microsoft and Yahoo both, my friends rib me for running my company’s website on IIS and SQL Server (it works well), I get ribbed for using the Yahoo mail when my friends say to use Gmail, but I use these companies because it’s the best solution for my needs, however I use Google as my search engine because it seems to be the most efficient search solution “most of the time”.
Microsoft and Yahoo can’t solve there problem by Advertising and Spinning there way out of it, they need to innovate and to consider the Blue Ocean Strategy by Chan Kim, where you create uncontested market space and make the competition Irrelevant. Customers are just a click away. Remember the day when AltaVista was the search engine of choice. Then Google created a Blue Ocean with their search and Text Ads.
Change will happen when you give people a reason to change. Currently Google is the global search engine of choice obviously. I use the Yahoo mail because I can ping my own POP server, but would prefer to use “gmail” but that service is not offer, and I’m using word/excel 2000 because they work, and I just don’t need 50 new features. When companies help us become more efficient, they will start to win our hearts, minds and finally our wallets. If Yahoo or Microsoft want a leg up on Google, here is my short list of private innovative companies that would give them a more competitive edge: http://www.Loomia.com for recommendations, I use it and love it. http://www.SuperViva.com a social network for goals, its fun, and lets face it we all need inspiration sometimes. http://www.Thinstall.com for a paradim shift in software distribution, the Department of Defense uses them, so you know its bullet proof.
Google is a freakin bandwagon that people wanna be on. Its like the New England Patriots… Eventually, there gonna suck and someone else will captivate the hearts of the people.
I agree with my brother Ken,
“The bigger and more fun question is, “Who’s next?””
Josh, I agree. Google is a whole lotta hype. Microsoft once, long ago, used to be the “underdog” like Google against IBM.
Plus, Ballmer shouldn’t worry too much about Google taking the Office segment. MS Office is still a whole lot BETTER than Google Documents and Spreadsheets. It pains me to admit it, since I am a Google fanboy of sorts, myself.
As for Yahoo, I guess their strategy is to invest more in profitless, crazy companies. So, really, nothing has changed.
Let’s all party like it’s 1999 AGAIN.
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CEO of Microsoft, stated that
Google is making it difficult for them to recruit
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Maybe the problem is Redmond and not Google
“Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, stated that Google is making it difficult for them to recruit top talent.”
Um … maybe Microsoft is making it difficult for Microsoft to recruit top talent.
Why blame someone else for your problems. You used to be top dog. You have all the resources in the world. And now your getting your butts kicked!
Perhaps its your culture and the things that you value the most (getting every last penny out of hapless users) - which permeates from CEO down throughtout the entire organization - that has been the catalyst for your demise?
JoshW, did you just come out of a coma?! Patriots aren’t a bandwagon. Three championships in four years…that’s a throne! So bow down.
Hahaha, I agree with Ted #26. Seattle is a fun place to be, but I’m sure that the constant rain can be overwhelming for some people compared to Mountain View weather. Seattle summers however are unbeatable.
I have interviewed for Microsoft in Redmond before and the campus is just amazing. The company has over 100 buildings spread out and the gym is absolutely amazing. I heard that Seattle Mariners players work out there. Not only that but there are so many more employees at Microsoft that you can select from a diverse pool of friends.
From what I’ve heard, Google promotes “creative time” in which employees regularly have picnics and discuss ideas such as “wouldn’t be cool if the Internet could…?” which I thought was cool too.
The problem is that both of them ask interviewees grueling (but interesting) puzzle questions. >:-| As a matter of fact, when I interviewed for Microsoft, I was working on puzzle questions almost the entire day that I was on the campus. I have not interviewed with Google because they weren’t recruiting at Michigan State as of last year.
Google or Microsoft? Microsoft all the way! Google has this arrogance to it now, they reject very qualified people because they don’t have an insider to pull them in. Microsoft is in the starting stages where Google was 3 years ago. So with that, Microsoft will get the LAST LAUGH! muwwwaahaha!
Basicity- “I got a throne for ya”
The patriots are awesome, Im not suggesting different… they are incredible. However, just a few years ago Bill and his boys were huge underdogs against the STL RAMS in the Super Bowl which they won.
Everyone was happy for them, everyone was on the “bandwagon”…
My point is that eventually they will be overcome by a team that does something different or something better. For now, they are loved, they have the hearts of the people… Just like Microsoft (underdogs to IBM) did and Google does.
Just know it will never last… Someone bigger and better is coming- WATCH.
Gubs you’re right. A lot of Googlers are being hired because they have frat brothers inside with them. I know a few who got the job that way.
Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo are all great companies. I would probably take a job at any of them as long as the position was interesting.
the NIH has actually just completed a study that proves that heavy users of google are suffering from serious nausea, headaches, fatigue and are getting the runs…although many study participants were also given peanut m&m’s during the actual study, possibly contributing to such symptoms and conditions, it appears that google’s amazing efforts in healthcare could not come a moment too soon. i sure that they figure this all out…
as for lumping these three together constantly? have you forgotten the part where microsoft sells developer tools, databases, other applications, services, consulting and all of that? i’m a bit confused…or have you forgotten that yahoo is building an entirely tier 1 video content network and that people with low interest in seeing my neighbor lipsynch might prefer abc content?
my, what a myopic view of competition you google fans have…
If you don’t think there is somebody out there masterminding a business that will kill both Google AND Microsoft in 10 to 20 years, then the Internet will never take a mainstream approach to people’s lives. Microsoft, to those that aren’t total geeks, only makes people think of Bill Gate’s billions and the XBox. Very few people know it’s actual history because they don’t spend all their time on the internet reading up on huge companies. They have REAL lives.
As for Google, it’s just a stupid search engine, with the advertising feature that nobody really gives a shit about. Sure the average person would love to start a website to reap the benefits of this service, but for what reason? To say you have a BLOG?! Until the word BLOG is abolished, it will never become a day to day word for myself and other Americans.
And for that matter, where’s the Google store that I can walk through? This may sound completely stupid for the moment, but why is it people are so loyal to Wal-Mart, Target, Taco Bell, and other giant companies that have a physical effect on people? Nobody gives a flying fuck about a nerd-sanctuary named Google, where only geeks are hired and can spend free time “picnicking” and coming up with new ideas.
The internet of the future won’t be run by nerds and college graduates. It will be about the people; what they do and how they do it with family values as the backbone. It’s just a matter of time.
@35, google > you
“Seattle is a fun place to be, but I’m sure that the constant rain can be overwhelming for some people compared to Mountain View weather. Seattle summers however are unbeatable.”
Mountain View is where Google people work but most likely not where they live. Just like Redmond is where Microsoft people work not where they live. Fair comparison…
Oops due to Wayne’s comment the superviva.com servers are choking, probably giving you a nice clean white look and feel when you try to get to the site. We’re moving to a new hosting setup soon (and looking for angel funding)!
I’ll tell you what the problem with Microsoft is. Steve Jobs of Apple Computers said it best: “I wish Bill Gates the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.” It all makes sense now, eh?
I used to work at Yahoo, and I think the company needs a major change before it’s going to be competitive with Google. When is the last time Yahoo innovated something that was of worth?
As I see it, Terry Semel needs to go. He is an antiquated CEO, a behemoth from Warners that was let go there for his bloated salary and mindset. Yahoo needs to bring in someone with drive and imagination, with an understanding of how the Internet actually works. In fact, the only exec I’d keep is Sue Decker. Yahoo should have developed YPN 2 years ago, and it should have been a superior product for publishers. They didn’t, and it’s not. Also, Semel is supposedly a media god - why didn’t he push video 3 years ago? Instead people praise him for pushing premium services and saving Yahoo. IMO, Google saved Yahoo by proving ads CAN sustain the business. The premium serivces Semel pushed still don’t make more than 10% of their revenue, not much more than they ever did. So, really, he didn’t do anything of worth except extract 500mm+ for himself and his private jet, and his suite in the Four Seasons in SF, and his chaffeur.
I’d then probably lay off at least 20% of the company. Half the people working there are sheep who work on products that no one really uses, and don’t make any money. The money-making products need to get to a kickass state in short time - Yahoo Small Business would be one concentration, Search and YPN another. I’d also quit with the acquisitions of companies that end up doing very little to generate signifigant revenues. Flickr and Upcoming may have been reasonable if they turn them into something huge, but things like Inktomi were a waste of money. That company needs to start filtereting talent like Google does - no one who matters should be anything less than brilliant at understanding the marketplace and building products that are innovative and work very well.
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And for that matter, where’s the Google store that I can walk through?
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http://www.googlestore.com/
As always, there will be someone new in the future that will be more innovative than Microsoft and Google. It’s the evolution of capitalism… 40 years ago there was no Microsoft, 10 years ago there was no Google, 10-15 years from now or possibly sooner, with the current rate of new startups, there will be someone new.
hmm, who could resist the childish rainbow colors of Google capmpus
On a serious note, don’t be fooled by Google image from the late 90’s or how they want you to think they are now. They are a public company and shareholders come frist. Open source, mopen sourse … cretive, shreative … it’s a place to work like Yahoo! and Microsoft. They’re making the same mistakes Yahoo! & Microsoft have made, so the halo will be gone (if no already) and they won’t stay a darling forever.
When the social stigma against people who leave Google is gone (I bet you would question the sanity of anyone leaving that place, regardless of the reason, right?), you will see the reverse migration.
When giants go down, they go down hard.
I would definitely choose google
Good luck Yahoo and Microsoft because you guys are going to need it.
Yahoo has my vote forever and here is why
They wanted my trust and I gave it - I have used GMail in fact my entire office at Socialtext uses GMail instead of using an exchange server - the idea here being we are also part of Office 2.0 and should support others out there that are part of our group - an office with out Microsoft exchange.
I was in love with my Gmail, I set it up to pop serv into my email client on my Mac iBook - is was easy to set up and I was living the email life, it didn’t even feel like I didn’t have an exchange server. This was really working - they had me - a fan forever, and a product champion convincing others to do the same as I had.
And then it all came crashing down - Monday afternoon at 1:15pm my fantasy with google ended - I got error message after error message my password did not match my email client said - I reset everything, I even reinstalled the F*&(%$@ Software - I sent in a bug report detailing what I had done. I read the help pages, I called my friend who works on Macs, I joined a google group to ask for help. NOTHING- I sent another bug report - NOTHING.
It was determined by those smarter than I that it was not my computer, not my email client - it was GOOGLE - and they were not responding - I sent at least 3 bug reports none where responded to. When I worked at Amazon we had a company standard of getting back to people within 24 hrs. I live via my email as I am sure we all do. And to be honest it’s not just the lost email. It’s the fact that I spent all of Tuesday trying to work out how to fix it. Google once again proves the fact that THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH - pay with your duckets or pay with your time. So as of today at 10:30 am on Wednesday I have not heard back from Google - and they want me to trust them with documents - forget it. I will never and I encourage you all to refuse.
There is a great point that is at debate here - we heard about it at my Office 2.0 conference - is Software as a Service a must have? I would rather pay 40 bucks a month to have my gmail work - then to have it not work and to not even receive a reply - I want my Software but I want the service, I want to be able to have someone troubleshoot in a timely fashion when something does not work and I can not fix it.
And if you work at Google and are reading this - please HELP…….
If yahoo acquires facebook I’ll be short on this company for a long time. Just think about it - a company willing to spend more than a billion on a simple unpredictible social trend - cleary reveals that it lacks of creative minds.
And who*s saying that google is everybodys darling? In fact they are not that beloved little search engine company we’ve used to know, but a global player in the internet business. And I dont have so much sympathy for that…
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And for that matter, where’s the Google store that I can walk through?
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http://www.googlestore.com/
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That’s not a store dumbass. I wanna hop in my car, and go to this place; watch fat white trash compare prices on shampoo and get stared at by toothless women. I’m not a Wal-Mart fan but, you know you go sometimes just to look at the people and don’t really buy anything. Just sitting on a chair and shopping for something that won’t arrive for another 24 hours to three days isn’t a fucking store.
Yahoo is just trying to hide its incredibly poor quarter so that its share price does not drop any further…
its pretty amazing that microsoft spends that much on ‘research’ when all they do is roll out clones of whatever has been successful in the marketplace over the past couple of years. it should cost them like a million a year really, for maybe a half dozen developers to architect the whole thing on C++ and deploy it on bunker full of mac mini’s running freebsd.
if they werent seo hell-bent on implementing the whole thing on their own proprietary OS/server products and languages, and stopped jacking up their salaries to try to coax developers away from the ‘cooler’ google, they could save a lot of money.
thankfully, ubuntu will praobily drop the bottom out of their OS/Office income over the next 5 years. and theyll start a slow unwinding until they are as remembered as Banyan Vines of Novell, and currency inflation will relegate their sizable cash position to pocket change.
what i wonder though is whats the big deal about any of these 3 companies. sure ive used google’s search since 1998 after switching off AltaVista, but havent even clicked on a single ad banner in all that time. i could definitely do without a centralized search engine, just finding sites via word-of-mouth and embedded links..i think most people could, unless theyre trying to find stuff to copy/paste into their high-school homework
i mean, unless you want to work on photosharing or online office suite at one of these behemoths, and endure a 1 hour bus ride to a suburban hell-hole of multi-million dollar homes, youre pretty much SOL and broke. i know i’m in that category. the market was more interesting when these behemoths hadnt sucked up all the talent and interesting companies , usually never to be heard from again..
in fact the only thing i think any of these companies could provide to me that would be any use would be a way to pay my rent. and the only way they could do that is if i go work for them. kind of orwellian, huh?
Amit, just to clarify, Microsoft does not have it’s own gym. They provide subsidized (paid for) membership to a sports club close to their campus.