[News] Microsoft Unveils Plan for 3 Labs in Europe

<Quote>
Microsoft said Thursday that it would set up research centers in
Britain, France and Germany to improve its Internet search technology,
describing the move as a vote of confidence in the European economy
and in the company’s ability to close the gap with Google.

The chief executive, Steven A. Ballmer, said at a news conference that
the three “centers of excellence” — near Paris, in London and in
Munich — would employ several hundred people.

Microsoft has been pushing to improve its ability to run Internet
searches.... “We are the challenger, not the leader, in search,” Mr.
Ballmer said. “But search is in its infancy, and there is so much room
for innovation.”

Google accounts for nearly 80 percent of Internet searches in Europe,
according to the research company comScore; its share is slightly more
than 60 percent in the United States.

Microsoft has barely 1 percent of the European search market,
according to comScore, and in some countries it even trails local
search engines.
</Quote>

[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/technology/internet/03soft.html[/url]

Ballmer seems to be serious when he says Microsoft will spend whatever
it takes to catch up with Google. It remains to be seen whether even
with his bank account he will be able to do it. Lately Microsoft has
been paying people to use their search services, which doesn't sound
like a good approach in the long run. Also looks like he wants to
have a presence in all the major countries of Europe---maybe for some
extra "influence", you suppose?

On Fri, 3 Oct 2008 07:41:13 -0700 (PDT), [email]nessuno@wigner.berkeley.edu[/email] wrote:
[color=blue]
> <Quote>
> Microsoft said Thursday that it would set up research centers in
> Britain, France and Germany to improve its Internet search technology,
> describing the move as a vote of confidence in the European economy
> and in the company¢s ability to close the gap with Google.[/color]

Sounds like the perfect job for Roy!
He could get paid to seed search engines all day long.

Oh, he already does that.
Sorry.


--
Moshe Goldfarb
Collector of soaps from around the globe.
Please visit The Hall of Linux Idiots:
[url]http://linuxidiots.blogspot.com/[/url]
Please Visit [url]www.linsux.org[/url]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

____/ [email]nessuno@wigner.berkeley.edu[/email] on Friday 03 October 2008 14:41 : \____
[color=blue]
> <Quote>
> Microsoft said Thursday that it would set up research centers in
> Britain, France and Germany to improve its Internet search technology,
> describing the move as a vote of confidence in the European economy
> and in the company’s ability to close the gap with Google.
>
> The chief executive, Steven A. Ballmer, said at a news conference that
> the three “centers of excellence� — near Paris, in London and in
> Munich — would employ several hundred people.
>
> Microsoft has been pushing to improve its ability to run Internet
> searches.... “We are the challenger, not the leader, in search,� Mr.
> Ballmer said. “But search is in its infancy, and there is so much room
> for innovation.�
>
> Google accounts for nearly 80 percent of Internet searches in Europe,
> according to the research company comScore; its share is slightly more
> than 60 percent in the United States.
>
> Microsoft has barely 1 percent of the European search market,
> according to comScore, and in some countries it even trails local
> search engines.
> </Quote>
>
> [url]http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/technology/internet/03soft.html[/url]
>
> Ballmer seems to be serious when he says Microsoft will spend whatever
> it takes to catch up with Google. It remains to be seen whether even
> with his bank account he will be able to do it. Lately Microsoft has
> been paying people to use their search services, which doesn't sound
> like a good approach in the long run. Also looks like he wants to
> have a presence in all the major countries of Europe---maybe for some
> extra "influence", you suppose?[/color]

....Like that blackmailing incident in Denmark, with the Man in the Sweater
reportedly threatening to destroy jobs if he doesn't get intellectual
monopolies on maths?

“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect
sometime in the next decade.�

--Bill Gates

- --
~~ Best of wishes

Roy S. Schestowitz | Anonymous posters are more frequently disregarded
[url]http://Schestowitz.com[/url] | GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Mem: 2075800k total, 1909192k used, 166608k free, 35280k buffers
[url]http://iuron.com[/url] - next generation of search paradigms
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)

iEYEARECAAYFAkjmVoIACgkQU4xAY3RXLo6tKQCeMQTnp4NlkURZxDz4OX2nmOCN
HbYAn2zy3oOcrf7hyCL4e+Wj16m4yn2S
=bCxw
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

On Oct 3, 10:29 am, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@schestowitz.com>
wrote:[color=blue]
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> ____/ ness...@wigner.berkeley.edu on Friday 03 October 2008 14:41 : \____
>
>
>[color=green]
> > <Quote>
> > Microsoft said Thursday that it would set up research centers in
> > Britain, France and Germany to improve its Internet search technology,
> > describing the move as a vote of confidence in the European economy
> > and in the company’s ability to close the gap with Google.[/color]
>[color=green]
> > The chief executive, Steven A. Ballmer, said at a news conference that
> > the three “centers of excellence” — near Paris, in London and in
> > Munich — would employ several hundred people.[/color]
>[color=green]
> > Microsoft has been pushing to improve its ability to run Internet
> > searches.... “We are the challenger, not the leader, in search,” Mr..
> > Ballmer said. “But search is in its infancy, and there is so much room
> > for innovation.”[/color]
>[color=green]
> > Google accounts for nearly 80 percent of Internet searches in Europe,
> > according to the research company comScore; its share is slightly more
> > than 60 percent in the United States.[/color]
>[color=green]
> > Microsoft has barely 1 percent of the European search market,
> > according to comScore, and in some countries it even trails local
> > search engines.
> > </Quote>[/color]
>[color=green]
> >[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/technology/internet/03soft.html[/url][/color]
>[color=green]
> > Ballmer seems to be serious when he says Microsoft will spend whatever
> > it takes to catch up with Google. It remains to be seen whether even
> > with his bank account he will be able to do it. Lately Microsoft has
> > been paying people to use their search services, which doesn't sound
> > like a good approach in the long run. Also looks like he wants to
> > have a presence in all the major countries of Europe---maybe for some
> > extra "influence", you suppose?[/color]
>
> ...Like that blackmailing incident in Denmark, with the Man in the Sweater
> reportedly threatening to destroy jobs if he doesn't get intellectual
> monopolies on maths?[/color]

PJ noted that all three countries supported OOXML. Now they get
Microsoft labs.