Mike Pouraryan
SP Week-End: Has Microsoft Lost its' Mojo?
Link: www.docs.com
Technology continues to change before our very eyes. Right now, Facebook is the place to be and has even overtaken Google as the most visited Website out there. The implications of this change for those of us New Media Practitioners is truly yet to be realized.As Facebook continues its' phenomenoal growth, others are not staying put either. For instance, a Facebook alternative has arisen called Diaspora. I have been eagerly awaiting this for a while. They raised $ 186,000 in a matter of days which was frankly amazing to me. Facebook has shot itself in the foot by violating the privacy of individuals. A CNN analysts claimed that over 100 controls had to be checked before people's privacy could be protected. On top of that, they have sold their advertising data to other companies. At some stage, there has to be some level of sanity brought to this whole mess.
As Facebook and Google continue to battle it out, there is one company that seems to be left behind: Microsoft. I was surprised to see a recent Newsweek column blasting Steve Balmer reign at Microsoft. But, the columnist was right because Microsoft's stock has been virtually flat and everyone has run circles around it. Microsoft seems to finally get it because Office 2010 is being released to the Web, it has a parternship with Facebook and the bing search engine seems to hold its' own against Google. I have tested the Microsoft/facebook partership and it seems to be working OK. The link is available in this "write-up".
What is clear is that the traditional MIcrosoft Model is not a long-term sustainable model. Microsoft apparently has to figure out how to make money in the cloud and off the cloud. I envision them continuing to play a part. I question whether it is a signifcant part in light of the rise of Social Networking and the juggernaut that is Facebook and Google. The profound social and poitical ramifications of such radical transformations is yet to be realized, though.
