Hot on the heels of Google's debut of the bewildering new Google Base service, Microsoft says it too is vying for the distinction of "eBay killer" aka "Craigslist slayer" with its own entree to the online classifieds business, codenamed Fremont. Say, haven't we seen this before?
Everyone knows Microsoft has a well-earned reputation of "embracing and extending" everything that was once cool, but do they have to be so blatant about it? I mean, come on! The paint isn't even dry on Google Base. Nobody really knows what Google Base is going to be when it grows up, and already MSFT is copying it! I guess they'll be eagerly watching base.google.com, and as soon as a new feature is introduced, Steve Ballmer will pick up the red phone and give a command to a thousand Indian developers to start coding!
Of course, Microsoft denies the me-tooism. In fact, they say:
"We started this before anyone knew about Google Base. Having seen what Google Base is doing, I don't think they were aiming for a classifieds service," Wiseman said. "They don't have a taxonomy of listings like we do. They see it as an open database."
Somehow I doubt the sincerity of their claims about the coincidental timing. And what's with the splitting of hairs about the functionality of Base? You know, if it walks like a duck...
And not to bash MSFT too much, but their homegrown search engine is almost a year old now. Wasn't it supposed to have dethroned Google by now? Or at least Yahoo? And where is it now? Still in the low teens in search marketshare. That doesn't sound like a very good investment to me.
Posted by Cory Kleinschmidt
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