Microsoft Rocks (Now Beat Google)

Techies are going ga-ga over Microsoft’s gangbuster earnings. Nearly every analyst has commented how much better they were- far beyond anything they were expecting.

It’s nice to surprise the analysts to the upside, for once.

You’d think the question going forward would be- can they do it again next quarter and the quarter after that? And some investors are asking that. But many are simply obsessed with beating Google (for justifiable reasons.)

As this poster, pirranhajo said on the Yahoo Message Board under a message called “Congratulations! Now time to beat GOOG”:

Basically from now on ,the war will be online ad field. GOOG got DCLK we got AQNT. Still GOOG has edge over MSFT. We shouldn’t let them take over DCLK at the beginning, anyway it doesn’t matter now, we may see minor ad -company aquisitions like VCLK, then we are set to beat GOOG in his own game imo. Bottomline is that MSFT gotta get bigger pie from ad markets .I believe if management executes wisely we may see 50$ in 6 month.

Is this right? Is the “war” really in advertising?

Because Google isn’t much more than one big advertising company. That’s how they make their money- by being the conduit for ads. Is that all that Microsoft is or aspires to be? And if so- what kind of a company is that?

I’m not saying the money isn’t there- because it is. But, again, advertising is NOT a “product” -per say. Halo is a product. XBox is a product. Vista is a product. A Google ad is not a product.

Perhaps Microsoft can win the “war” by doing what Apple is doing: focusing on the product.

I’m just saying.