by Tom Reindl

Created on: March 19, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

Google and Microsoft are at war, and you stand to gain great benefit from the fallout. Unlike a nuclear war, in which both sides lose and the rest of the world contracts cancer because of radioactive fallout, this battle between the two largest "computer" companies will yield a Christmas-Morning-like bonanza of new products and improvements to old ones.

If there is one thing that capitalism has proven over the last two hundred years, it is that competition drives innovation, and innovation improves life experiences. Competition also provides a new formation of standards and ideals, because when a product is proprietary, it can only be what it already is. By adding different companies, you add different ideas, different options, and possibly most important of all to Americans, different choices.

In this epic contest, Microsoft has decided to openly wage war against Google in the race for customer loyalty in the free software and service provider arena. However, lest you think that this battle is only about who can provide the best free products to computer users worldwide, think again. It's all about advertising dollars. The company that wins will reap the rewards of having corporations and even small businesses vying and bidding for their precious advertising space.

What makes this war even more interesting is that it is between the two largest, most successful "computer" companies in the world. This is no David verses Goliath scene. This is Joe Louis verses Rocky Marciano, the New York Yankees pitted against the Brooklyn Dodgers, The United States of America pitted against the old Communist Russia. But it is also the battle between the neighborhood bully (Microsoft) and the new kid on the block (Google).

Between the two corporations, I can't decide who to root for, or who will win. More than likely, neither will win; one will succeed in one area while the other will dominate in another. But there will always be one clear winner whenever major competitors lock horns, and that winner is the user. Best of all, this competition will introduce new products to our market, and improve the old ones. Smaller competitors such as Yahoo (are you ready to finally feel sorry for them?) and other less well known service providers will lose some of their share of this market if they cannot keep up with the big dogs. In a battle between mammoths, it is usually the smaller "allies" of these mammoths who become bloodied beyond recognition.

Microsoft and Google; the gods of the computer world are doing battle. Are you ready to rumble?

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