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2009 has been a big year, at least as far as the announcements in Internet, Operating System and Search Space go.

Google is trying to close in on Microsoft’s bread and butter. Google’s Chrome OS has been the talk of the town for quite some time now. Microsoft is not the one to be left behind, what with Bing making its mark in the search space at least in some niche areas. Both have shown huge interest in Real-time search and have struck deals with Twitter. Both, however seem to be stepping a feet in each others area with a clear indication that they don’t want to drive the other out (this for sure is a remarkable change in the attitude of both the Technology giants). So, whose year has this been ? Google or Microsoft. Twitter and Facebook have been runaway winners though. So, today, we at microreviews set out to do a small check on how Google and Microsoft have competed against each other in 2009 and what we can expect in 2010.

Operating System : Yes, after years of speculations, we have a Google operating system coming out. Google Chrome OS released its source code and has promised that they will have the version 1.0 of Chrome OS out for people, late in 2010. Microsoft’s Windows 7 has come out with rave reviews, definitely much better than Vista.

Things to be noted in the Operating system sector:

• Google Chrome OS will require specially designed Net-books and will run only browser based applications.
• Google  has already made it clear that the Chrome OS Net-books are not meant to run on the  only computer you have. You need to have another computer with Microsoft Windows, Leopard or Linux on it. All this clearly suggests that Google is in no way trying to compete with Microsoft in the traditional OS space. Google instead is trying to create a niche group of users who need just the Internet. This is quite remarkable when you consider the rivalry that was hailed as the one aimed to wipe one of them out.
• Microsoft still makes more than 60 billion USD every year from the sales of Windows. However Vista was a huge disappointment.
• Microsoft Windows 7 has had brilliant reviews and is selling at the best ever rate.

Watch out for:

• Macbooks are getting cheaper and they have started to gain some market share in Windows strongholds.
• Ubuntu Linux has come of age and is starting to become very comfortable for users.

With Chrome OS set to release in 2010, there is a lot on stake for Google in the operating system space in the near future. With Chrome OS coming out for specifically designed Net-books, one must say, it is advantage Microsoft in this space (Even as I write this post on a Ubuntu Machine and claim that it is the best for all my purposes.!!). However, there is going to be some hussle and tussle in this sector in the next few years.

Documents Space : Microsoft has been a worthy leader in this space for more than two decades, with no real alternatives available in the industry for Microsoft Office. Microsoft office 2007 was a brilliant release and Office 2010 has had some superb reviews.

However, Office as the name suggests is meant for the document handling in ‘Offices’ and collaboration is an obvious need. Google Docs have been superb as far as collaboration is concerned and have become the market leaders as far as collaboration in the Online Document Sharing space goes. However, with Microsoft Office Live Beta coming out in 2009, Microsoft has set its feet in the document sharing space.

Things to be noted in the Documents sector:

• Microsoft Office Live may not be as collaborative as Google Docs, but has an advantage of being completely based out of Office.
• Google docs however has the advantage of coming out much earlier in this space and hence have a definite advantage of a head start as far as the collaborative part goes. Stuff like shared folders are adding to the appeal of the collaboration part of Office suite offered by Google.
• There is however, nothing which beats Microsoft Excel as far as the presentations space goes -  in the online as well as the offline space.
• With Google Wave expected to become huge as a collaborative tool (i.e. if it lives up to the expectations around it), its integration with Google Docs can become really  interesting.

Watch out for:

• Online presentation domain are getting a new look with applications like
  

  Zoho is a very good alternative for Google Docs

  Slideshare, Scribd, Flypaper doing very well too, there is more to look forward to.

• Zoho (now owned by yahoo) has for long been very good as far as Online Office documents collaboration space is concerned.

As of now, in this space too, it is advantage Microsoft but Google’s Online efforts are to commended.

This is the first in the series of posts about the ‘Google vs Microsoft’ war in various spaces of the Software applications and Web Applications industry. Google used to be underdog, if we go a couple of years back, but no more.

We at  Microreviews , think Google has been eying innovation even in a space which traditionally were Microsoft’s and return user dominated. Microsoft has come out with solid products in 2009 and there’s a long gap to bridge in both the spaces. Innovation by Google has to be the way.

The next couple of posts in this series will cover areas like Search,Mailing, IM, Browsers, Online Collaboration, The Social Space,Photo sharing and Video Sharing space (these spaces are definitely Google dominated to say the least ) and much more. Keep watching this space for the remaining part of the coverage. We will also cover some of the innovation that Google and Microsoft have come up with in 2009.

For evangelism , please get in touch with  me or  Vikash Kumar on twitter.

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3. Google Wave: is sure to create Waves!!!