Time for a skunkworks project

Jan 27th, 2007 | By Steven Hodson | Category: The Web

My lips are sealed .... really Search is the new/old paradigm and even though the basic search technology behind the pages has been refined and tweaked the technology is old and tired. Google rules the roost when it comes to search and even though everyone talks about being the next Google killer it isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Microsoft has poured ungodly amounts of money into an effort to unseat the king of search but for all this effort it hasn’t even made it to the top of the basement stairs. They had originally hoped that MSN Search would be they way forward only to be replaced by Live.com; which was the end product of a little skunkworks project in MS called start.com.

Microsoft know it needs to be a viable contender in the search engine battleground and when push comes to shove they are the only one with the money and resources to do it. That is if they could quit shooting themselves in the foot.

Instead of gaining market share Microsoft has seen itself losing it to Google and other providers. Chris Liddell in a c|net article said as much:

“On the search side you are correct we lost market share,” Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell said in response to an analyst’s question on the company’s earnings conference call. He said he is “clearly not happy with that.”

While Robert Cringely feels that the battle between Google and Microsoft (and other providers) has pretty well been lost:

It may be surprising to think that Microsoft doesn’t have enough money to compete with Google since Redmond is sitting on something just under $29 billion in cash right now, and could borrow tens of billions more if needed. But while Microsoft COULD come up with the money, I seriously doubt that they WILL come up with it, at least not in time to have a real impact. Microsoft has too many businesses going right now with operating systems, applications, games, services, and other hardware. Bent on its own course of world domination through the xBox 360, Microsoft probably sees little reason to rush after Google in a fit of data center building. This is something I am sure Google is counting on.

Others like Robert Scoble and Dan Dodge think that by going vertical Microsoft could have a chance. Robert suggests they start with an attack of what he calls little cuts of which the purchase of Krugle could be the first nick.

So, what should their strategy be? Go for a little cut against Google. Don’t try to attack Google’s castle head on. That won’t work. Instead, flank them

[...]

But, there’s another engine that’s showing a way to start building a more successful search strategy: Krugle.

Buy it, and buy it now.

Dan adds to the thought:

I have suggested Mobile Search, Local Search, and Classified Search as promising areas in search.

While I agree with both of these gentlemen I would also add to that that it is time for another skunkworks project - another start.com

When start.com first came around it was nothing more than a mention on a couple of tech blogs about a private project by a couple of developers within Microsoft. A project for a rapidly prototyped and launched search engine with a UI that in many ways matched Google’s simplicity.

At some point the project was folded back into MS, rebranded, given a big shot of hype and launched as Live.com. It then proceeded to go nowhere but down regardless of all the community they tried to force on it and all the cool marketing glitz they piled on it:

“Microsoft’s Live branding has been tremendously confusing and has hurt the company, and it is very likely contributing to the situation they are in right now,” said David Smith, an analyst at Gartner. “They’ve created another brand and have not differentiated it.”

While it might sound a little nuts I think Microsoft should start all over again but with the following thoughts in mind.

First pull together a small core group of people; but no marketers, and create a skunkworks company totally divorced from Microsoft.

Say nothing to absolutely anybody about the group - especially the marketers.

This core groups should focus first on a verb name for the company/engine. A name that can be slid into our daily language the same way that Google has. Simple - short - sweet and with no input from the marketers. This part would take the longest and would be the most difficult.

Once this is settled bring in the UI team to design the interface but making sure that stapled to each of their foreheads is a piece of paper with K.I.S.S. written on it. Search UI doesn’t need fancy color schemes, it doesn’t need glorious graphics and it doesn’t need marketers.

During all this make sure of two things - stay out of the radar of folks like TechCrunch and the MS marketers. In this early stage; which could last anywhere from 6 months to a year, either of those two things would have detrimental effects on the project.

Then when you have the UI done and tied to an existing engine start the viral work but without the marketing department because they don’t have the first clue of how to really reach out to people. To them it is splashy web talk, ads and a lot of useless double speak.

The first place you want to go is to the colleges and universities but not as a Microsoft company. You would need to keep that name as far away as possible during these initial tender months of growth. Get the students involved; using the engine and most importantly listen very very carefully to what they are saying. Not just what they are saying about the results but about the coolness, the look, the name and most importantly how they integrate into their language.

This is not the marketplace of early adopters, or the bloggers, or of the marketers. No - search is the interface - the new language - of the people. All of the people.

If Microsoft had learned the lesson of start.com then the years they have lost belaboring the whole Live.com initiative wouldn’t have been lost. If Microsoft hadn’t forgotten the K.I.S.S. principal then perhaps Google might have something to worry about.

[tags]Microsoft, Google, search, start.com[/tags]