Google vs Microsoft

Google and Microsoft are two software giants that provide the majority of software and services that a lot of people who are online use today. Microsoft’s flagship product, and probably the most recognizable software today, is their operating system Windows, which has been around for almost three decades and has gone through a multitude of changes from a simple application to an all-encompassing operating system. On the other hand, Google does not maker operating systems, but their flagship product is their search engine. This is not something you buy but majority of the people who go online use it to find the things that they want to find.

The models of the two companies are very different as Microsoft makes its profit from the sales of software, like the aforementioned OS and application suites like MS Office. What Google sells is not software but advertising realty. This lets website owner’s links to appear on searches that are most related to what they are about and draw in prospective customers. To this, we can say that Microsoft is selling a product while Google is selling a service. That is a much generalized conclusion as the two are beginning to overlap in the things that they offer to the masses and sooner or later, they would be competing for almost every aspect of the software industry.

As Microsoft makes money from the sales of its products, it is determine that most of the things they make or provide come at a fee, although there are some exceptions. With Google, the opposite is true. Majority of their products, like the cloud computing office suite named Google Docs, and services, like Gmail, are provided at no cost to the end user. This is very attractive to the common user who does not always want to fork out cash just to be able to use certain things for a limited time.

It is quite easy to understand why I said that Google and Microsoft are moving towards a final confrontation. A lot of their products are beginning to clash (i. e. Chrome and IE, WinMo and Android, Google Docs and MS Office). It is just a matter of time.

Summary:

1. Microsoft’s flagship product is the Windows operating system while that of Google is their search engine

2. Microsoft sells software while Google sells advertising

3. Most of Microsoft’s products and services come at a cost while most of Google’s are available for free

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