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About this site

For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

MSN Toolbar Suite vs. Mac Fandom

My preview of Microsoft's recently released (in beta) of MSN Toolbar Suite, which provides instant desktop search functionality in Windows, IE, and Outlook, has garnered a number of negative reactions from Mac fanboys, who scour the Net looking for anything even slightly anti-Mac. In this case, they have a point, however. I do have a few derogatory (if accurate) comments about Apple in the review, and they can't stand it. So I'd like to address a few issues here, one of which I really, really wish I had thought to include in the preview (Maybe I'll mention it in the actual review, which will appear when the MSN Toolbar Suite is finalized in early 2005).

I'm not going to rehash issues about Apple copying Microsoft, which frankly has happened more than the reverse since Mac OS X first arrived, and has been routinely documented here and in other places along the way. Companies copy from other companies, get over it. My point isn't that Apple is the only one doing it, my point is that many people refuse to believe it even happens, and they're wrong.

No, I want to address two other issues. First, a number of people found my overly positive review of MSN Toolbar Suite to be ... a bit suspicious. After all, the argument goes, I write about Windows. I have a site called the Windows SuperSite. I mean, you don't have to do much math to put two and two together and ... well, you know. Yeah, that makes sense. Except that just last week, I panned Microsoft's Xbox Media Center Extender (see the review, I dare you), because it's a piece of crap. My latest Windows IT Pro Magazine UPDATE editorial is also highly critical of Microsoft for the WinFS fiasco (it's not on the Web yet, but I'll link to it when it appears). So there you go. So much for the back pocket theory. Maybe I'm just honest about this stuff.

The second issue is one I wish I had included in the article. That is, I mentioned that once Microsoft started talking about desktop search, a bunch of competitors started showing up. But my point about Google was that they pretty clearly rushed the public beta of Google Desktop Search out the door after Microsoft said they would ship a desktop search beta by year's end, not that Microsoft had "invented" desktop search. This isn't a matter of who's first, per se, but rather how when Microsoft announces something, it gooses other companies into action. Frankly, this is a big change from a decade ago, when such pronouncements would cause others to exit markets. Something to think about.

[ Posted at 1:01 PM | Permalink ]