MC Bookstore Chapter 190 The Tacit Understanding Between the Two Sides
Chapter 190 The Tacit Understanding Between the Two Sides
Chapter 190 The Tacit Understanding Between the Two Sides
In the early summer of 1997, cold rain from the Pacific Northwest was drizzling down on every inch of the Seattle metropolitan area in Washington state.
In Redmond, a city in King County with a population of less than 5, the city is known worldwide because of one company: Microsoft.
By this time, Microsoft was no longer the startup born in a garage. With its absolute advantage in the Windows operating system and Office software, it firmly controlled the lifeline of the global personal computer software market and became the undisputed invisible ruler of the city.
Locals often say that every street, every restaurant, and every office building in Redmond is imbued with Microsoft's DNA.
This statement is by no means an exaggeration. Before Microsoft moved in, Redmond was just an ordinary small town on the outskirts of Seattle, mainly based on agriculture and light industry. Its per capita income was even lower than the average level in Washington State, and it was once jokingly referred to as the slum in Seattle's backyard.
With Microsoft establishing its headquarters here, the city has undergone tremendous changes.
The high salaries of Microsoft employees spurred the booming development of local real estate, retail, and service industries. Modern office buildings sprang up on former farmland, and once quiet streets became bustling with traffic. Redmond's GDP per capita soared in just ten years, transforming it from a lower-tier city in Washington State to one of the top 100 cities in the United States.
At Microsoft headquarters, Bill Gates' office overlooks the city he created.
The office is decorated simply yet stylishly. Outside the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, there is a continuous curtain of rain, while inside, there is a symmetrical and oppressive atmosphere.
After putting down the phone, his face, which always held a confident smile, was now filled with gloom.
It can only be said that the chain reaction caused by Netscape's secret talks with AOL was considerable.
As a leading figure in the global technology industry, Bill Gates was not unprepared for Google to potentially enter the browser market.
Microsoft has its own reasons for including Google's search engine by default in Internet Explorer.
His original strategy was to first stabilize the search engine market and then focus all his efforts on capturing the browser market. Once IE had achieved a dominant position, he would then turn his attention to developing the search engine business.
But plans can never keep up with changes, and Netscape's contact with AOL completely disrupted his plans.
The potential merger between Netscape and AOL will undoubtedly have a huge impact on Internet Explorer, and this protracted browser war will become even more deadlocked, with no end in sight in the short term.
So Bill Gates called Ernst at this point to confirm Google's plans and whether they had any intention of entering the browser market in the future.
In his view, since IE is already facing the challenge of Netscape, a lion, then it doesn't matter if Google becomes a tiger. Rather than responding passively, it's better to take the initiative and eliminate all potential threats at once.
He picked up the phone on his desk again and dialed the extension. "Have Jonari come to my office right away."
Soon, in less than ten minutes, Jonari, the head of IE business, walked into Bill Gates' room.
"You probably know about Netscape, right?"
Jonari nodded solemnly. "I just saw the news. Even if you hadn't called me, I was planning to come find you anyway."
He placed the folder on Bill Gates' desk and said in a deep voice, "After seeing the news, I immediately had my team do some data analysis."
"Based on the data we have, if Netscape and AOL merge successfully, AOL will be able to increase Netscape's market share by at least 8%."
An 8% market share is no small improvement in the browser market, especially since it's at least 8%.
This is the benefit of integration: AOL users can open Netscape Navigator directly from the website without having to minimize the webpage and then click on Internet Explorer. It may seem like there's not much difference, but it increases convenience.
In the internet industry, convenience is often one of the key factors that determines the success or failure of a product, since the internet itself is a symbol of convenience.
"The situation is more serious than we imagined," Bill Gates said in a low voice. "You may not know this, but we need to face not only Netscape, but also Google."
"Google?" Jonari's eyes widened slightly, a hint of surprise on his face, but he quickly regained his composure and said with a wry smile, "I said back then that Google would definitely enter the browser industry."
Jonathan wasn't too surprised that Google had entered the browser industry, but he didn't expect it to happen so soon.
"So we're going to abandon Google search and pull out our secret weapon?"
Despite Internet Explorer being equipped with Google's search engine, Microsoft has never given up on its plan to develop its own search engine, and has been taking precautions against Google from the very beginning.
Of course, the most important thing is that Bill Gates wants to force Google to sell itself after unifying the browser market, or replace it with his own search engine.
What level is our search engine at now? Can it compete with Google... and if so, how many points can it reach?
'
Bill Gates originally wanted to ask if it was possible to reach Google's level, but he changed his mind before he could say it.
If Microsoft's self-developed search engine could truly reach Google's technical level, it would have abandoned its cooperation with Google long ago and wouldn't have waited until now.
Jonari fell into deep thought; he needed to respond to Bill Gates' question with an objective and accurate answer.
After a moment, he looked up and said seriously, "If I had to give a specific number, I think it would be about 80%."
This answer exceeded Bill Gates' expectations. A hint of surprise flashed in his eyes, and he gestured for Jonari to continue.
"In fact, the search engine we secretly developed is already much more powerful than any other search engine on the market except Google."
Jonah explained, "Google's core search engine algorithm is PageRank, which determines the importance of web pages by analyzing the links between them, thus providing users with more accurate search results. We, on the other hand, took a different approach and chose a word segmentation-based indexing system."
To help Bill Gates better understand the differences between the two technologies, Jonah further illustrated, "Simply put, when a user enters a search keyword, Google's PageRank first analyzes all web pages containing that keyword, and then sorts them based on the number and quality of the links. Our word segmentation indexing system, on the other hand, first segments the search keyword and the web page content, removing redundant information and impurities, and then matches and sorts them based on the segmented results."
"Essentially, our technology and Google's PageRank algorithm have the same goal: to improve the accuracy of search results. They are just two different technological paths to achieve the same objective."
At this point, Jonah spread his hands, a hint of helplessness on his face. "But as you know, technological development is a continuous iterative process. While we are making progress, Google hasn't stopped either. If I had to pinpoint a time gap, under ideal circumstances, I estimate that we are about six months behind Google in terms of technological advancement."
To make this time gap more intuitive, Jonah put it another way: "If we measure it by Google's development history, our current search engine technology level is roughly equivalent to the technology level of the first version of Google's search engine."
After listening to Jonari's presentation, Bill Gates's tense brow relaxed slightly. In his view, although Microsoft's search engine still lagged behind Google's, it was sufficient to handle the current situation.
More importantly, Microsoft could cut off a vital source of revenue for Google.
"You should immediately arrange for the team to complete the IE browser update as soon as possible and officially launch our search engine to the market."
Jonari nodded solemnly, then turned and left the office.
Watching Jonari's departing figure, Bill Gates did not relax at all. He picked up his phone again and dialed a number.
After the call connected, he only said one sentence: "$1.5 million. Agree to their terms and complete the acquisition as soon as possible."
After hanging up the phone, Bill Gates stood up and walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window again, his gaze fixed on Mountain View.
Meanwhile, at AOL's headquarters in Virginia, Netscape founder Jim Clark and AOL CEO Case were having a pleasant conversation.
Two cups of coffee, long since cooled, sat on the table, with several draft cooperation proposals scattered around them.
"Jim, I think Netscape must adopt a free strategy." Case put down the proposal in his hand and said firmly, "Microsoft's financial support for IE is unmatched by us, and Netscape is facing too much public pressure right now. Only by making it free can we win back users' hearts."
In the browser war that lasted for several years, Microsoft resorted to all sorts of underhanded tactics in an effort to defeat Netscape.
Especially in terms of media promotion, the deep-pocketed Microsoft has been constantly promoting the Netscape monopoly threat theory by investing heavily in Google Play and sponsoring media outlets.
They instilled in internet users the idea that once Netscape monopolized the browser market, users would face increasing pressure to pay, and that Netscape would inevitably raise prices, ultimately harming users' interests.
Jim Clark frowned, a bitter look on his face. "But now we are the weaker party in the market."
Back then, under pressure from public opinion, he was forced to clarify in front of the media that Netscape did not believe it would exploit its users.
But now IE has a higher market share, so they should be the ones using the anti-monopoly card.
Case shook his head, offering a different perspective: "Jim, you're overlooking a crucial point: nobody wants to spend more money. That's a common consumer mentality. So what if IE really monopolizes the browser market? It's free, so users won't complain much. Netscape, on the other hand, charges fees, and even if the price is low, it will still become the target of user complaints."
Case's words hit the nail on the head, and Jim Clark had no way to refute them.
He recalled the competition between Netscape and Microsoft back then, and suddenly couldn't help but curse under his breath, "It's all that old guy McNealy's fault, he's such an ungrateful Judas."
The McNealy mentioned by Jim Clark was the founder of Sun Microsystems. One of Sun's most important products was the Java programming language.
With its portability, cross-platform compatibility, and security features, JAVA has quickly become popular in the internet industry and is now one of the most popular programming languages.
But few people know that it was Netscape that truly popularized Java.
Back then, Netscape pioneered the use of Java applets in its Navigator browser, which popularized Java and greatly promoted its development.
Jim Clark has always believed that Netscape was instrumental in Sun Microsystems' survival.
In fact, the browser war between IE and Netscape was also rooted in the operating system war between Sun and Microsoft.
Java's cross-platform capabilities pose a potential threat to Microsoft's Windows operating system, which is why Microsoft has always been wary of Java.
Netscape's support for Java undoubtedly sided with Sun Microsystems, putting it at odds with Microsoft.
But no one expected that in late 1995, Microsoft would suddenly back down and reach an agreement with Sun Microsystems, agreeing to pre-install Java in the Windows operating system and pay Sun a huge usage fee every year.
This agreement instantly nullified Netscape's advantage in programming languages.
Having lost its trump card, Java, Internet Explorer officially launched its counterattack against Netscape. By bundling with the Windows operating system, IE's market share rapidly increased, while Netscape gradually fell into a passive position.
Jim Clark has always harbored resentment over McNealy's betrayal, but it's all hindsight now and can't change the current situation.
"Also, I can't put all my strategies into IE."
Jim Clark took a deep breath and refocused his attention. "You mean, Netscape is abandoning its partnership with Google's search engine and continuing to develop its own?"
"That's right," Case nodded solemnly, a shrewd glint in his eyes. "Jim, can you guarantee that Google won't enter the browser market? In my opinion, they'll most likely do so. Netscape's current use of Google's search engine is undoubtedly doing someone else's bidding. We cultivate users' search habits, but ultimately Google might use the browser market to defeat us."
"But Netscape's search engine is far behind Google's—" Jim Clark didn't finish his sentence, but his concern was obvious.
Netscape's own search engine is now far inferior to Google's in terms of both technical strength and user experience, which was an important reason why they chose to cooperate with Google in the first place.
Case, however, seemed confident. "You don't need to worry too much about that. If I'm not mistaken, Microsoft's IE will make the same choice, abandoning Google's search engine and launching its own self-developed product. At that time, we and Microsoft will be back on the same starting line."
"If we can reach a tacit understanding to jointly squeeze the market space of Google's search engine and cut off its revenue source, it will be difficult for Google to have enough funds and resources to develop a browser."
"Developing a browser is no simple task. It's impossible to launch a mature product without at least a year or two of development."
At this point, Case's tone carried a hint of confidence: "Once Google loses the revenue support from its search engine and can't quickly launch a browser product, it won't be long before users gradually forget about it. At that point, won't the entire internet industry landscape be dictated by us and Microsoft?"
"It's not impossible that we could even bring Google into our camp and make it a pawn in our fight against Microsoft."
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