Microsoft to target Google

[Spinner]

Microsoft has decided it's not content being the most recognized software company on the planet, it now wants to make its mark in the Internet searching business. It hopes to become as popular as search engines like Google and Yahoo in a few years time.

The software giant's push comes amid an exponential growth in information -- on desktop computers, on online photo albums, on Web sites. "And the more information there is out there, the more difficult it becomes to find relevant information and content," said Rob Lancaster, a senior analyst with the Boston-based Yankee Group.

Beefing up search is a smart move for Microsoft, Lancaster said, and should strike some fear in the hearts of Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and other companies that offer search engines. It won't be easy to shove those two aside, however. Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch online newsletter, noted that Google and Yahoo have loyal followings. And several other players are also trying to grab some of the multibillion-dollar possibilities in Internet searches. IBM Corp. just announced a searching technology, called WebFountain, designed to not only find text in a variety of places online but also analyze its meaning. Still, Microsoft has a strong position currently as one of the Web's top three search sites.
Source - CNN

[QCH]

Microsoft will tap into each Windows PC and gather data and then be able to use dynamic link searching using your PC's CPU. Then bundle the right to do this deep within some obscure licencing aggreement for some hole in the OS, which they put into place for just this reason. Then the fix will open the hole nessecary for the search engine to get in. Then the world will end....

[Leonardo]

QCH - you might be on to something. I am not an MS hater, but still I don't trust them.

What a concept - use a remote procedure call exploit to function as a search engine. Hmm, sort of like unwitting participation in a massive distributed computing search engine.

Come to think of it though, I don't think MSFT could pull off something that devious. It seems as though it's always someone else who discovers security pitfalls in Windows and IE, not Microsoft themselves.