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The Scariest Boss in Redmond
Google's New Paranoia
Microsoft's Bing Puts Google and Yahoo on the Defensive
Microsoft Wants You To 'Verb Up' And 'Bing It'

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sggrf
08/31/09

In reply to The Scariest Boss in Redmond
He FAILED at Yahoo and will FAIL again at Microsoft. No chance they can win.
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Paul.B.Dodd
08/31/09

In reply to The Scariest Boss in Redmond
He already lost to Google once overseeing Yahoo and it wasn't even close. He's losing right now because Bing is awful and its constantly changing background is irritating. Work smarter, not harder. I hate working for these hardass bosses who schedule meetings on Fridays and Mondays and expect 16 hour days. Even if Bing were useful in something, which isn't the case, I would avoid using it out of spite just because of this guy.
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shostakobitch
08/31/09

In reply to The Scariest Boss in Redmond
his vanity plate is a random series of letters and numbers. he masturbates to rfid tags and bar codes. fuck you microsoft and fuck you no-fun worker stereotype. turn down the mahler, drink a couple beers and take a nap.
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ambitious
08/31/09

In reply to The Scariest Boss in Redmond
He eats glass sandwiches for lunch and sandwich glasses for dinner.

He sleeps with his eyes open and fists gripping stun-guns.

He eats lemons whole like apples. Rind on.

And his spectacles are made of crystalized grandpa tears.

He is: Ferocious Qi.

Seriously, he sounds like most hard-working people I know. Save those late night meetings.
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snugbug
08/31/09

@ambitious: I would really hate to be his wife or his kids, but I can honestly relate to his habit of snagging quiet time at the office in the before- and after-hours. It's incredible how productive you can be when your cubicle neighbors aren't neighing like jackasses while you're on deadline. I used to routinely plug in my Zune* to block out the office chatter during regular hours.

*Yes, that's how punkrock I am. I own a Zune because I love the horrified reactions it elicits among iPod idolaters.
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Edited by snugbug at 08/31/09 2:29 PM snugbug was starred snugbug was unstarred

macbeach
08/31/09

In reply to The Scariest Boss in Redmond
As someone who is no big fan of Microsoft, I'm glad to see its minions being sleep and recreation deprived, working for assholes, and in a company town where seeking alternate employment involves selling your house in a long-term down market. Go Softies, you deserve your fate.
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Wrapitup
08/31/09

In reply to The Scariest Boss in Redmond
For all his workaholism and slave-driving, Bing.com ended up being cheap fucking assholes and stealing kayak.com's UI. And I still use Google and kayak.com because Bing's layout is a counter-intuitive mess of color, words and images.

So get some fucking sleep, Mr. Li. It stimulates the right hemisphere of the brain that governs visual-spatial abilities. Abilities that you and your designers kinda lack.
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skymotel
08/31/09

In reply to The Scariest Boss in Redmond
This is one of those entries where you want to write a comment but you're afraid of losing online anonymity and work. Gah.
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partypants
08/31/09

In reply to The Scariest Boss in Redmond
This sounds like the plot of Lethal Weapon 4.
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iplaudius
08/31/09

In reply to The Scariest Boss in Redmond
If this is a Microsoft PR campaign, it is appropriately backwards, since I like many normal people despise workaholics and desire nothing more than to see them fail. Get a fucking life, Lu.
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JohnnyMau
08/31/09

In reply to The Scariest Boss in Redmond
That is one ugly mullet...
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Sophie needs to study...damn promoted this comment JohnnyMau was starred JohnnyMau was unstarred

SeeingI
08/31/09

@JohnnyMau: HAHA I thought the same thing.
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Accidental Billionaire
06/15/09

In reply to Google's New Paranoia
Bing is a quantum leap ahead for Microsoft.

Microsoft:

- has more areas to take in data metrics and analytics than any corporation in the world (Desktop/Workstation OS, Server, Mobile OS, Phone, Zune, Xbox, Search, Office, Office Live!/Cloud, Exchange, E-mail).

- a lot of money to blow through to catch up and pass

- a few years (and billions) spent on R&D, that just are a polishing away from production readiness

Yes, Google should be panicking.
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Accidental Billionaire
06/15/09

@Widget Economist: Oh, and IE8's "suggested site" big brother call home that finds what you like.

They are on a fast track to not only matching the effectiveness of Google's algorithm, but taking the market back and keeping it.
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Shadowlayer
06/15/09

In reply to Google's New Paranoia
The only thing more pathetic than bing is this zing! thing I've right next to my text-box...

I dont hate google: theres no other dotcom that deserves to be where they are, they truly brought (and continue to bring) products that far surpass those of the competition, their landmarks being (IMO) Search and Gmail (in a time where every webmail was 2MB or less, having 1GB was a fucking quantum leap).

If theres anyone smug in the valley, those are the likes of facebook and twitter: one is a bottomless money pit, and the other not content with being the same business failure, believes it's the center of the world while their userbase is composed of barely 6 million people.

I saw Wave last week, and honestly is great, I always wanted a real-time collaboration tool like that (too bad I never had the resources to make it).
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noonecaresowen
06/15/09

In reply to Google's New Paranoia
What am I missing about Bing? I tried it a few times and was less than impressed. I think the Google dudes are safe.
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abettertomorrow
06/15/09

@noonecaresowen: Yeah, but Google's built their entire cost structure on the basis that they'll maintain 80% search share or whatever it is. Bing doesn't have to be better, just good enough to take 5-10% from Google. It's a lot easier to switch search engines than it is to switch OS or word processor. They don't have another highly profitable revenue stream to cushion the blow.
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NerzzleintheVerzzle
06/15/09

@abettertomorrow: Don't be absurd, GOOG is printing money. Their cost structure doesn't in any way shape or form require 80% search share.
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abettertomorrow
06/16/09

@NerzzleintheVerzzle: Their cost structure is almost entirely predicated on their search share. Here's how it works:

Stock price right now is $416, based on earnings and expected growth. They lose search share, their earnings drop. To get them back up, they must reduce costs. So their cost structure is directly linked to their search share.

Of course, they could choose not to reduce costs, and let their share price drop - reducing the compensation of their most valuable people, and creating tremendous shareholder pressure on top management. Let the share price drop too much and all of a sudden they're acquired by another company.

Obviously, they're at no risk of developing "going concern" problems! But they're playing a different game. And their problem is that the vast, vast majority of their highly profitable revenue is based entirely on their search share.
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iplaudius
06/15/09

In reply to Google's New Paranoia
Is it a mistake to be worrying about algorithms at this point? It seems to me that the model itself is lacking. I think a model like WolframAlpha is where the future is—although, of course, that particular project is nowhere near where it would need to be.

I want a search that can understand natural language and, over time, anticipate my intentions well enough that I think it is reading my mind.
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mew
06/15/09

In reply to Google's New Paranoia
I hope Bing is successful. So sick of the 20-something year old arrogance wafting around every Google employee. Guess what? Maybe you don't know everything and should actually listen every once in a while. There is no such thing as entitlement in capitalism, you'll learn soon enough.
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iplaudius
06/15/09

@mew: If you want to talk about arrogance and capitalism, I think you’d be better served turning your jaundiced eye toward the men and women Wall Street and Fairfield County, who collectively in their arrogance have done far more damage than the socially-compensating nerds of Silicon Valley.
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