Technorati vs. Microsoft? No Contest
Did Robert Scoble dedicate part of his life working for a “dead” company? OR, did Microsoft, Scoble's former employer, “die” the day Scoble left the company?
Microsoft: why haven’t you changed your search strategy yet? Look at your search on Live.com. Now compare to Technorati. Which one is more “live?” Technorati by a mile. Maybe this is what we mean when we say Microsoft is “dead.”
Scoble, almost one year ago, at his blog, in “Correcting the record about Microsoft”:
First, I love Microsoft and Microsoft did not lose me — at least as a supporter and friend.
I wasn't, and am not, frustrated at Microsoft. I've never had more opportunities available to me. No one at Microsoft has complained to me about my views for a very long time. In fact, the harsher I got the more support I got. Friday I visited with Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems. Management at Microsoft didn't say a thing about that. Imagine if your employees went to your fiercest competitor and had a very public lunch, wouldn't you be up in arms? Not at Microsoft. At Microsoft I am encouraged to change the world and make things better for our customers.
There is a lot more positive PR to come out of my mouth about Microsoft. It is the best big company in the world (and I've been lucky to meet and study quite a few of the world's best companies lately).
What a difference a year makes? Apparently!
Today’s strategic Scoble advice to Microsoft, and Google:
If I were at Microsoft I’d be spending a few corporate hours wining and dining Dave Sifry.Technorati is so superior to all the other blog search engines now that it isn’t even funny. Why can 45 people at Technorati beat Google yet Microsoft, with its billions of dollars, can’t get any traction?
On what does Scoble make his sweeping assertions? His own focus group of one, “The Scobleizer,” reports he "just tried a bunch of searches":
Technorati does “Live” search MUCH MUCH better than Microsoft and even better than Google’s Blog Search.
Google, with its billions in revenue and thousands of PhD’s should be ashamed that it isn’t as good as Technorati.
MY focus group of one, Digital Markets, does not come to the same Technorati conclusion.
Regardless of differing personal assessments of product quality, a single company announcement, upgrade, enhancement…does not an instant success make, especially in the multi-billion dollar Microsoft vs. Google battle.
Just as Facebook did not destroy newspapers and Craigslist simply because it told the New York Times that it wanted to do more in classifieds, Technorati did NOT “beat Google, while Yahoo and Microsoft can’t” simply because Technorati declared that “the world has changed,” hence its own business “refresh.”
Om Malik is undoubtedly not alone in experiencing an underwhelming Technorati “shock and awe”:
Dazed and confused is how I felt when I took a look at Technorati this morning. According to all the hub-a-bub, the company has changed focus away from blog search to … something that I can’t figure out. Maybe my neurons are misfiring this morning, but I don’t get it.
AND DON’T RACK YOUR BRAIN TRYING TO!