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Comment by TallGuyShort | Hacker News Reader

Next thing you know the creators of Bing are going to release their own operating system!

Unwittingly perhaps (or necessarily), Microsoft has just done Google a huge favor. By virtue of Microsoft delivering a reasonably competitive search engine, Google is now in a much better position to show that they are not a monopoly. Back in the old days, IBM, then Microsoft liked keeping Apple around for the same reason.

Conversely, Google has completely dropped all pretext of its former hesitancy to tread directly on Microsoft's turf, releasing operating systems, mobile devices, browsers, hosted office applications, and working to obsolete Exchange (Google Wave).

In the end, there can be only one...

Nothing has really changed. Microsoft just rebranded their search engine and Google continues to create products in an attempt to 'surround' MS for a battle in the future. And as always Uncle Sam is still watching the MS monopoly in operating systems, as well as Google's monopoly in search and neither has taken a hit to it's main business. Did I miss something?

It's the same game of chess, but the pace seems to be picking up, and the strategic value of each piece placement is coming more clearly into focus. The players are locked into their strategic choices, and are now becoming more reactionary. We'll see more forced moves before either side starts shedding a lot of pieces.

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