June 27, 2005
SteveB in Sydney
I attended a "Microsoft Australia Partner Briefing" today in Sydney where the main speaker was Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer. Not having seen SteveB live before, a few things stuck out.
- Steve is loud.
- Steve loves repeating phrases. The whole "developer, developer, developer" thing from a few years ago is exactly how he is on stage.
- Steve is one of the most passionate poeple I have ever seen.
And thats what so good about him. He was interesting throughout his entire presentation, he worked the audience really well and he was passionate about what he spoke about. The Q&A session was interesting and when one of the guys I know, Arthur Spanos from WDG, asked why Microsoft are working on search products when Google have done so well...Steve Ballmer went into overdrive.
He got up from the stool he was sitting on, strode over to the end of the stage near where Artie was sitting, and became an evangelist on why Microsoft develops products and why, in the end, they will beat Google. He went through three specific topics on the whole search thing.
Number one...Innovation in the search space is far from over. He said that Google have done some good work, but that Microsoft have only just gotten started.
Number two...He spoke about how sometime its good to not be in first place when a battle starts and how he, and Microsoft, love a good fight. An even, fair and nice fight...but a fight none the less.
Number three...The last thing he mentioned was that web search was only part of the equation. The MSN Desktop Search tool is the best tool in the market and that they were working to make it better. He talked about how important search was in the enterpise space and that Microsoft had a lot of expereince to offer in that area.
I agree with big fella on this one. Being involved in the MSN Search Champs progam and having seen some of the stuff they are working on, and also how passionate the team are about winning the search battle, i have no doubt that given time (and not a lot of time) they will win...or at least take a leading share in the space.
Here is my crappy, out of focus shot of SteveB on stage.
Of interest...he also mentioned that the beta release of the next version Office will happen before the end of this year. With beta versions of Office and Longhorn on my machine at the same time...its going to hate me ;)
Posted by Mick (SplaTT) Stanic at June 27, 2005 11:38 PM
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I often wonder about people like Steve Ballmer. It's funny to laugh at him, it's easy to go, "oh what a monkey". But on stage to be that passionate, you probably have to be a VERY strong believer in the product and yourself too.
That's gotta be a pretty hard job.
Posted by: Ants at June 28, 2005 9:57 AMSo who else here reckons that the last "search" question was a plant?
Posted by: r at July 3, 2005 10:35 PMNah...Artie from WDG wouldn't let anyone do that to him...he just likes to stir people up...
Posted by: Mick (SplaTT) Stanic at July 3, 2005 10:39 PMI think that's interesting that you agree with Steve Ballmer that Microsoft will eventually dominate Google in search. I personally think it's very, very far from a foregone conclusion. It's good to hear other people's opinions but I have much more doubt about this than you.
It's going be an interesting race, especially when MSN brings out its pay per click ad system in 2006.
Posted by: Tim Macdonald at November 9, 2005 12:56 PMHe is a good entertainer. Good on him for that.
Posted by: Lee at November 14, 2005 6:22 AMTo repeat frases is one of the rules of a speaker. Another rule is to be asionate enough to make people hear you.
Posted by: Sarah at January 6, 2006 6:36 AM