1. Who has the better Web Services?
13th May 2009 Google Microsoft Others Commentary
Google Chrome is growing fast but Microsoft Internet
Firefox, Opera,
Browser  Mozilla
Explorer still has hold of the userbase.
Google has Web History to record web surfing habits from
Web History  Google whereas Microsoft has several weeks history in
Internet Explorer.
Google jumps to mind when performing a web search, Live
Web Search  Yahoo, Ask Search has some catching up to do.
Google has Blog search, Scholar Search and Book Search in
Custom Searching  development
Google Directory utilises the Open Directory Project
Web Directory  DMOZ, Yahoo
Google had an early lead but Microsoft Desktop search
Desktop Search  integrates neatly into Office applications
Microsoft Image Search bought up more appropriate images
Image Search  to the search terms I used.
Google News usefully collates many of the headlines on an
News  BBC, CNN 'at a glance' page
Google benefits from less clutter on the mobile screen
Mobile Access 
Who is opening up their various platform quickly and easily ?
API Tools 
Neither comes close to the public profiles offered by others
Facebook, MySpace,
Public Profile Tools  Xing, LinkedIn
but Microsoft Public Profile pips Google to the post
Google Adsense and Adwords are pretty much the defacto
Ads  standard
Google Groups are easier to get started and quicker to use
Discussion Groups 
Google has focused on Blogger but Microsoft seem to use a
Blogging Tools  Wordpress, TypePad number of blogging platforms including Live Spaces
Google Alerts have revolutionised we get information - but
Email Alerts  watching for things we are interested in and dropping us an
email
Microsoft Hotmail is pretty good but Google Mail has the
Mail  edge
Microsoft have Live People which brings contact information
Contacts  from various platforms together, Google relies on Google
Mail
Google Notebook is pretty handy, a Microsoft equivalent
Note Taking  does not jump to mind (other than One Note)
Google has Picasa and Web Albums, Microsoft have Live
Image Library  Flickr Photos - Picasa is very handy.
Google has Talk but Microsoft have Messenger - handy as it
Instant Messaging  AIM is often pre-installed.
Google Bookmarks can be shared but is there a quick and
Delicious,
Bookmarking  StumbleUpon
handy way of sharing bookmarks from Microsoft?
Google Orkut has its loyal followers but has failed to capture
Social Media  Facebook, Myspace hearts like MySpace and FaceBook have
Google has Feedburner and Google Reader, Microsoft uses
Syndication Tools  Outlook for reading feeds
Google Analytics has quite extensive information
Alexa, Compete,
Analytics  Woopra, Quantcast
Both Microsoft Calendar and Google Calendar are pretty
Calendaring  similar but Google Calendar has the edge in its simplicity.

2. With Google Earth and Google Street View on the horizon -
Mapping  Multimap Google has this one licked
Google has iGoogle but Microsoft is catching up slowly with
Start Page  Netvibes Live Home
Google has Page Creator and Sites - they are usable not very
Website Building  intuitive, it is easier to get started with Live Spaces
Google has Webmaster Tools to help us sort our websites out
Webmaster Tools  -Microsoft has Webmaster Center which is also pretty handy.
Microsoft still have the edge with Office - and will likely stay
Office Applications  this way until we move onto the web completely.
Google Docs may have simplicity but it is simpler to use - it
Shared Office Applications  does appear lack auditing and backup tools to make it really
useful.
You can't beat human translation but automated tools are
Translation Tools  Babelfish, Systran handy. Google has a good translator but Microsoft has the
side by side feature in Microsoft Translator.
Microsoft have SkyDrive, the excellent Mesh and Office Live.
Storage  Google have yet to offer a suitable product.
Google has SafeSarch Filterting but Microsoft have Family
Family Safety  Safety
Microsoft has X-Box live as well as Microsoft Game Studios -
Gaming  what does Google have?
Many of Microsoft employees blog and Microsoft often run
Most Open  roadshows and technical events across the UK - I have never
heard of a local Google UK Event..
Google has the Enterprise search box but Microsoft has its
Hardware  peripherals.
Google has Book Search, Latitude, Google Earth (and its
New Technologies  Twitter derivatives) but Microsoft has Surface Computing, Server
Products, and Game Studios.
It is a lot closer than I first imagined -
Google Or Microsoft ? 22 16 Google what do you think?