Microsoft + AOL: Let no man tear them asunder

IDG News Service — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:11:29 -0700

Proving that you can't keep a good rumor down, news reports swirled yet again this week about a possible marriage of inconvenience between the House of Redmond and the House of Dulles. Though my gut instincts tell me this is just another gambit in the endless Microhoo saga, it's possible MS would swallow the slimmer trimmer but still largely useless AOL and continue its shark-like pursuit of Yahoo as an alternative to the Google Juggernaut.

Time Inc would be happy to divorce AOL, no matter who bites. And I cannot think of two more worthy parties to be joined in holy headlock. They deserve each other.

The fact the World's Most Feared Software Company desperately needs to hook up with some other aging behemoth just to stay in the game -- not dominate the market, mind you, just keep from disappearing altogether -- is kind of remarkable.

Microsoft is still ginormous and expanding into every space it can imagine -- mobile devices, TV set tops, your toaster, etc. But without a desktop OS monopoly to wield as a club, it has to start from scratch. It actually has to compete and win on merit. When's the last time Microsoft did that?

Now some Cringesters have taken umbrage at my statement earlier this week that "everything Microsoft touches turns to excrement." One reader argues that Microsoft...

...is directly responsible for the crushing majority of the past two decades' innovations and developments in software architecture as well as its newer focus on the internet, entertainment, and gaming.

Admittedly, the excrement statement was a bit over the top. But I've been thinking about this "crushing majority" for the last day or so, and I'm drawing a blank. I can't come up with anything MSFT has done on the scale of Google or Web Services or even (gasp) Facebook in changing how we use technology. But maybe I haven't been paying attention. So I put it to the Microsoft fans in the audience: What are those crushing innovations? Where has Microsoft lead and not merely imitated?

Post your thoughts below, email me direct -- cringe@infoworld.com -- or take this BuzzDash poll. Top entries will qualify for cool swag.

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Microsoft + AOL: Let no man tear them asunder