The new internet search wars that broke out this week between Google and Microsoft will not be anything like the last. The basis of competition is shifting, and not just because Microsoft has a shiny new technology at its disposal in the shape of OpenAI’s impressive language artificial intelligence.
Google won the last search wars for a very simple reason. Rivals — including Microsoft’s Bing — couldn’t come up with anything new or distinctive enough to counter Google’s powerful brand and distribution advantages. Even the chat-based AI behind the latest Bing upgrade probably won’t break that pattern. Google has been caught embarrassingly flat-footed but it should still be able to match Microsoft within weeks. If this was a rerun of the old search wars, Google would win hands down.
This time, however, Microsoft has four main weapons at its disposal that make the outcome more uncertain.