So much for kinder and gentler
MS says of their renewed foray into Search,
Microsoft efforts are so sweeping that painting its strategy as a simple matchup with Google is a "narrow, narrow way of looking at it."
This is classic MS. Not competitive, "But just wait, it's gonna be GREAT!" Freeze sales or adoption or whatever of competitors with "just around the corner" messaging. While they then take a few years to catch up.
To be fair, many companies use tactics such as this, speaking of their next product. And I use it sometimes myself - I'll talk about J2EE futures, but usually to make a point regarding forward compatibility of applications, which is a current 'feature'.
MS just take it that much farther, talking about 2 or 3 generations down the road as "coming soon".
For what its worth, I think there is plenty of opportunity to improve search technology. There are a number of searches I'd like to be able to do that current providers simply don't offer. If MS want to deliver a better product, have at it. But their performance to date in this area is less than stellar, and the sheer hubris of their statement above given their track record ...
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice ..."