The Battle Lines Are Being Drawn

So. Saw this article today, and was excited about the future. Looks like MS is taking up the baton of New&Cool and is trying not to miss the boat. Specifically the AllThingsGoogle boat I think.

It should be fun to see what happens in the next year. Whether MS will come good. I guess there’s a bit of potential. Imagine if they ran Office Online or something. Then truly, we would find out about trust. Would I trust MS to put all my documents online, stored on their servers. Probably not in a million years … but then, maybe with a slick advertising campaign and some nice … not a chance.

However, it is conceivable that they won’t go for the little guy, but instead, market towards businesses. If they were to provide a stand-alone solution, now there’s something that might actually go forward. Imagine being able to set up Office on your network, if it were a web-based app, and have it run as a webservice from inside your network. That is better. Much more trust, because much less trust is needed in the outside. The info is stored on your own servers, but you are using their product.

And this is a different direction to Google. They are getting information. But MS don’t have to get information. The better way would be to undermine Google by offering services that seem like they aren’t taking your information. Instead, they’re giving you web services/desktop-like services at a reasonable price (maybe free), and using the advertising thing. Also, they’re not storing your info, and that could be used very wisely in a marketing campaign. It’s like the desktop, only web.

So that’s my 2.1 cents on the situation. I’d like to see them provide their products as web services, with local data storage, and use other methods of money raising. Of which they could create a new one or two.

I guess though, I’m just thinking, that they could also take the route of offering much cheaper rates if using their services and storing on their servers, as opposed to storing on your own servers. This is a typical strategy, and I’d like to see them take a different approach. Flip it round. Make it more viable to setup your own servers, rather than using theirs. This would go a long way in changing the general perception of MS. In fact, to quote a famous add with some shampoo, it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.

It’s like the Desktop, only Web.

I like that. It’s got a ring to it, in my sleep-deprived brain at least.

‘Nuff said for now.

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