WARNING::OPED COMMENTARY::STANDING ON SOAPBOX:: Slashdot | Can Microsoft Out-Google Google?

I really really really hope NOT, but this appears to be the current million $$ question. I really hope those smart, quirky, unconventional folks at Google have the staying power to withstand the battle that looms on their horizon. I'm certainly pulling for them. Heck, it wouldn't take much to convince me to join their ranks...

With continued consolidation in the enterprise software space providing enough of a distraction, [e.g. ORCL gobbling up Siebel today], companies like MSFT, Google, and Yahoo! are very quietly aligning themselves to prepare for the looming battle for control of what today we call the "consumer desktop". In my opinion, it appears as though MSFT, Google, and Yahoo! are on the verge of unveiling their vision for the next generation application and desktop computing platform in an attempt to capture market share of the vast and rapidly growing consumer internet, computing, and media markets.

The way I see it, in the not so distant future, it won't matter where you are, what device you are using, or what speed your network tap transmits at-- in this future the average person will be able to quickly and effortlessly access all of their digital assets, customized and personalized applications, productivity tools, and the weath of information available at your fingertips or accessible via voice control or other means. Oh and this implies the ability to "jack into the net" [to use the old cyberpunk jargon] from any device that (1) can be uniquely identified with a globally unique identifier, (2) has a valid IP address, and (3) can establish a secure and reliable connection.

This vision is the focus of my one of my current R&D "side projects." It's something I've been calling "my netOS" -- you know -- the network operating system -- remember novell's vision where huge powerful servers would do all the "heavy lifting" and be accessed by "thin, dumb clients" that were supposed to pop up all over the place and be globally accessible? It's actually not too far from where I think we're heading.

As I continue to follow the recent trends in internet computing and the mainstream of adoption of web services and soa [service oriented architecture for all you acronym noobs] and the maturation of the predominant web service / soa platforms ( read: J2EE / .NET), I'm now convinced that we're rapidly heading towards an era of "rich, device independent client -- soa-based computing. An era where rich internet applications will be dynamically assembled, deployed, and provisioned to whatever device, IP address, or service is making the request, regardless of the underlying transport protocol. [Note to self - can I copyright and trademark my previous statement? or am I just playing another game of corporate BINGO. In either case, the analysts will be spewing this jargon soon enough.]

As much progress as we've made over the past 10 years, we've still just barely scratched the surface of the potential application of current and future technologies. There are so many opportunities that lie ahead of us where we will continue to innovate and provide innovative solutions that are capabile of solving common, practical, everyday problems, hopefully reducing the barriers to the attainment and sharing of information and knowledge.

[Whew...I had no intention of blurting all that out. I guess it was the article on slashdot that was the catalyst as it continues to reaffirm my position and current thinking on what lies ahead. It really makes me think about the future of internet computing as we know it. If you're willing to waste a couple of hours and lose a few brain cells, I'd gladly discuss my perspectives over a couple pints...]

Slashdot | Can Microsoft Out-Google Google?