The tit-for-tat exchange between Microsoft and Google continues to gather pace. In the run up to the long-awaited Windows 7 operating system, Google announce Chrome OS. As Google look to bury news of Bing’s surprise early release, Microsoft partner up with Yahoo to start a more concerted effort to down the search leaders. Now Google are ramping up their efforts to market their online office applications; clearly a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Office suite.
They’ve even returned to a more traditional form of advertising. In order to gain extra business Google will be plastering billboard advertisements on major highways surrounding a number of American cities. Maybe the resurgent Microsoft, a company that has long since been blighted by the likes of Live Search, Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 6, has gotten to Google. Or maybe, and most probably, they developed this package in 2007 and need to give it one last push to see if it has any legs.
Whatever the truth, it always raises eyebrows when the mighty search giants decide to do some offline advertising. With Google Wave and YaBing on the horizon, there isn’t much chance that this emerging rivalry is going to die down any time soon.
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