Microsoft is playing catch-up and, in my opinion, delluding itself it can beat Google in its home turf.

Ballmer said Microsoft planned to use “sheer tenacity” to wrest market share in the online advertising space from Google and Yahoo, using its software-as-a-service approach to create a range of opportunities to generate interactive advertising revenue. He said Microsoft has targeted a five-year plan for catching up and overtaking Google in that space.

Ballmer: Microsoft Will Meet Threats of Google, Linux – Over Time

Btw, MSFT has just reached a new 52 week low.

US$200,000 a day.. ($48.5 million in salary, bonuses, incentive payments and stock awards.) that’s what ex ExxonMobil CEO took home. Plus another $98 million in pension payout.

In this year’s proxy statement, Exxon defended the package by saying it rewards Raymond’s “outstanding leadership of the business, continued strengthening of our worldwide competitive position, and continuing progress toward achieving long-range strategic goals.” Raymond had been CEO since 1993 before stepping down at the end of last year.

Yep it must be that outstanding leadership thing that led them to earn $36 billion last year.. sure.

This is really interesting, check out Google’s image search for Tiananmen:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tiananmen&btnG=Google+Search&sa=N&tab=wi

http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen

Contrast this Yahoo Gave Search Data To Bush Administration Lawyers with this Google will fight Bush Administration demand for search records. I never use Yahoo search, as I mentioned before I’m not a big fan of Yahoo homepage/email/search etc. and I should have shorted it yesterday :)

A very interesting article on Starbucks Economics and pricing methodology.

I received an email in response to my post about my bad experience with Interport Executive Movers in Singapore.

The email, from John Smith, reads as follows:

As expat, I know that there are two sides of the story. There are also many people or cheap expats trying to find a free lunch. Many like you, have source for many free quotations and i cannot beleive you post such message. I read your posting and I can tell you that you are full of B/S. I feel that if you are unhappy, you have the right to legal actions. It is cheap and unfair to post such one sided experience.

Apparently this “expat” does not like the fact that I share with the world the unscrupulous conduct of Interport Movers. This gentleman does not only hide behind a bogus yahoo email, with a bogus name, but also does not post directly to the relevant page, does not like people asking for quotations for services AND calls me full of B/S, hmm..

Let me tell you one thing Mr. Smith, this post about Interport Singapore can be called many things, but one thing it isn’t, and that’s cheap. In fact it’s worth quite a bit, 1. the money Interport charged me on top of their quotation and 2. it’s worth helping other people who are looking for relocation services or movers to singapore avoid this expensive and unprofessional movers company.

As for one-sided, I’m not a reporter. I’m a blogger writing about my experience. If YOU have the other side of the story, by all means, post it so everyone can see. Or are you just full of B/S?..

This is a very interesting blog by an ex google employee in which he desbribes how things are done and not done at Goog. Great insight into a company run by geeks, for geeks and with loads of cash which allows it to move away from typical corporate and management styles.

Google tended to hire smart Stanford grads and set them loose in the halls. If they didn’t secure a role elsewhere, they ended up in marketing, where the assumption seemed to be that no special skills were required, as long as you could think quickly and were willing to work hard.

That was pretty much true across the company. While engineers needed technical skills, even there Google didn’t value experience in a particular field as much as a track record of intelligence and accomplishment. This flowed directly from Larry and Sergey’s confidence in their own ability to figure out anything they put their minds to. Smart people should be able to learn whatever they needed and then implement it. L/S had initially handled all aspects of the company, after all, from UI design to answering user email, so they knew it wasn’t that hard.

Xooglers.