Is Google the new Microsoft?

摘要

Just as human history has been shaped by the rise and fall of successive empires, so the computer industry has, in the few decades of its existence, been dominated by one large company after another. During the mainframe era, IBM wore the crown. But it fumbled the transition to smaller machines in the personal-computer era, and the throne was usurped by Microsoft. Now, at the dawn of the new era of internet services, Google is widely seen as the heir to the kingdom. As the upstart has matured into a powerful industry giant, the suggestion that "Google is the new Microsoft" has become commonplace in computing circles. Is it true?