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Creatively bankrupt, the best Microsoft can do is imitate other corporation's successes.

It's a strategy that worked for them in the 1990's when they could leverage Windows to cream competitors like Netscape.

Anti-trust aside, it won't work for consumer web services because Windows has no particular traction on the Internet ...it's a level playing-field.

Microsoft needs to do what every other consumer products organization has to do: Look for a need and fill it.

Microsoft just doesn't have what it takes to be a 'Better E-Bay' or a 'Better Google' !
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The Computer Rodent

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God forbid that a company try and give another company competition. No, that would be unheard of in this day and age

when google copies other it is OK and when M$ does that it is wrong,

are you commie ?
ad it to your post eg.:-
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The Commie Computer Rodent

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it will make a lot more sense while reading your posts

Actually, Microsoft DOES look for a need and fills it all the time-- they take a great idea, make it better, and market it better. What other need is greater? It's what they do, and they do it very well, which is why they always hold a lot of market dominance. People need things, absolutely, but they need better things.

Google, much as I distrust them, seems to be learning that lesson very well... which makes me wonder-- why can't some of these other companies figure it out? They spend all their time whining about someone copying their idea and doing better rather than doing what it takes to improve their own product and market it better.

I find it amusing that some people can be so hypocritical to criticize Microsoft for acting this way, but they turn the other way when someone else does it.

Whats worse is no live service works in Opera yet, so I assume it's all limited to the Windows platform.

Anyone else thinking "Yahoo Shopping"?

Copying and giving competition are two different things.

It is not okay when Google steals ideas from Yahoo and other companies.

Most of them function to some degree in Firefox, and considering they're still in development as betas, I'll hold off on passing final judgment about something like that. However, as long as they work in IE and Firefox, I'm perfectly content. Afterall, IE is the official Windows browser from the company, so it takes priority, and most of the services work fine in FF (the #2 browser at this point) or at least inform you that development is still in progress.

If they don't work in Opera, makes me wonder... what's the point of being able to pass the ACID2 test if it can't display a "real world" web site?

No offense to you, but copying is a pathetic excuse for judging innovation and competition.

In school, if two students get 98% on a test and missed the same items on the test, but they sit on opposite sides of the room... that doesn't mean they copied each other. It just means they arrived at the same conclusions independently-- even if they previously studied together, they weren't able to actually collaborate on the real test. That's hardly grounds for accusing them of plagiarism or academic dishonesty.

For that matter, if it were a real, accurate indication of cheating, then every single shopping outlet in the country is guilty of copying holiday sales and things like that. I mean, how dare JC Penny or Sears copy the idea of a holiday sale that Macy's came up with first! Nevermind the fact that those damn companies sell the same items at cheaper costs!

Why aren't these retail stores complaining about each other more often than they are? Simple-- because the retail sector has already figured out that their "idea" being copied produces competition which allows them to create more and sell more... the better marketing deal wins... not the bigger lawsuit.

Live isn't a "real world" site, as it is loaded down in Javascipt and other web technoglogys... a load of s*** in my opinion...

Websites should be pure HTML/CSS on the client side, with a minimul amount of other things (like Java, flash and images)

Live or not live... not live, it's the question.
papelitos.net

Is that supposed to have meaning? If so, it was lost on me, which either means one of us is a moron.

Was lost on me too. Sounds like a Shakespere (sp?) quote gone wrong.

LOL