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Microsoft Plays Hardball with Google Search Engine for Enterprise Market

Digital Journal — Google, are you listening? Microsoft launched the first battle cry yesterday in the giant Internet search war, targeting the same enterprise segment Google is already addressing.

This summer, Microsoft announced it will release a new product for businesses that allows users to search for information through their PCs, the Internet and corporate intranets. The desktop application is called Windows Live Search (confusing for those who remember Microsoft calling its Web search service by the same name).

At a conference of 100 CEOs at Microsoft’s Redmond campus, Chairman Bill Gates assured attendees that making corporate data readily available will ensure their businesses become more productive. For IT workers, “software empowerment for them really can make the difference in how well things get done,” Gates said.

This announcement marks a bold move by Microsoft to enter a new segment of the enterprise market. It already has millions of commercial relationships with enterprises big and small through its software sales. In addition, Microsoft has expert knowledge of the enterprise software industry, since it has sold apps like its SQL server and Exchange mail server for years.

Ultimately, Gates hopes the new Windows Live Search — included in the upcoming Windows version Vista or available by download this summer — will offload the information avalanche that buries many IT workers.

It’s a grand vision and a lucrative market, but it’s also a battlefield where Google has already joined the fray.

For about a year, Google has offered free downloads of desktop search toolbars for enterprise customers, enabling employees to find files and Web pages instantly. As much as Google must be watching what Microsoft is doing with Windows Live Search, Gates and company must also be monitoring what Google is releasing to the enterprise market.

So can Microsoft convince its many existing customers that it can trump Google in this desktop-search race? How will Google tweak their current releases to outperform what Microsoft unleashes in the summer?

IT employees will have to choose who can best serve their needs, much like home-theatre customers must now choose between Blu-ray or HD-DVD. But in this tech war, the consumers don’t have the luxury of waiting to see who will emerge as the successor. They need solutions now.

As one CEO said at Microsoft’s conference, “There is a surfeit of information. We have stuff coming out of our ears.”

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