Google and Microsoft are worldwide acknowledged multinational technology giants that are based in the USA.
Both the companies are manufacturers of many products that could also be called services as they are not all hardware-based.
Owing to the large base of the companies they have both acquired many smaller and nonprofit tech businesses expanding their area of operations and also improving the profit gained on an annual basis.
Google vs Microsoft
The main difference between Google and Microsoft is that Google is more of a service provider that has bare minimum products out on sale as hardware equipment while Microsoft makes their profit off products sold off in the market as equipment used by people for hardware as well as a few software systems that are crucial in the running of many business units.
Google began as a research project among two peers that eventually developed into the tech giant that it is today. They have been providing services to the users since the time the internet has been going around, helping the users with their famous search engine that has been equipped with enough sites to satisfy the requirements of the users by providing them with the help that they need.
Microsoft has been around for a long time. It was found way before the internet was even heard of by two childhood friends. The starting of Microsoft was small and never heard of until they started creating new systems and gave birth to its phenomenal operating system that is a necessity of every household today. These OS came with many versions each better than the last.
Comparison Table Between Google and Microsoft
| Parameters of Comparison | Microsoft | |
| Year of Establishment | 1998 | 1975 |
| Founders | Larry Page and Sergey Brin | Bill Gates and Paul Allen |
| Headquarters | California | Washington |
| Sectors | Computer software, telecommunication equipment | Hardware, electronic gadgets and software service |
| Products | Google search, Google maps, etc. | MS Office, MS edge, etc. |
What is Google?
Google could be called a service provider in some ways thanks to its search engines and internet-related products that have been flooding the market since its establishment.
It was founded in the year 1998, by two college students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Both of them were working on a Ph. D research project that could create a website ranking system in order of the information provided by them.
Studying at Stanford University, the two embarked upon a journey that eventually led them to create the present-day Google though it wasn’t called that back then.
The research started initially as a basic search engine plus website ranker called BackRub which had been more specialized in ranking the websites.
The method taken by BackRub to rank the searched for websites was that it counted a lot on the relationship among the websites for the information it held.
Over that, it also took into consideration the number of pages that each website catered to, and depending on that the search engine created an ascending or descending order for the website.
The significance held by each of the pages in a given website was carefully analyzed by the search engine that linked each page to the start of the website enabling an easy way of research for the user.
What separated BackRub from the other search engines that were in common use at that time was it analyzed the websites in the above manners even linking pages to the original site, introducing a new method of searching back in the days.
Another element in the search engine that helped in the ranking of websites and the pages called PageRank made the search engine give a greater impact on the user’s method of search.
In recent times, Google has expanded its area of dominance from complete software-based to more hardware-related equipment.
Newer products bring out a larger user circle for those who need online advertisement facilities and many syncing devices for users with multiple accounts and even cloud computing.
Cloud computing has been used by users who need many devices to be linked to a single user account prompting the system unit to be in an orderly manner.
Products of Google that are in demand nowadays include Google Search, Google Maps, Google Books, YouTube, etc.
What is Microsoft?
Microsoft is a software-based American company that specializes in providing software tools to users.
It also provides multiple consumers requested electronic equipment, personal computers, and other services.
Microsoft was developed in the year 1975 by two childhood friends, Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
Even though its development proceeded the much-acclaimed internet era, it can’t be considered out of sync with the developments of that time.
Microsoft was always upgraded with the latest inventions and updates of the time coming up with their range of the most in-demand technical products.
The first developed Microsoft product by Gates and Allen was an interpreter that could be used majorly as a stimulator software system and they licensed it.
This didn’t make much of a head start in the technological world and this prompted Gates and Allen to create and release another product.
Their next product gave them a breakthrough in the industry. An Operating System Xenix was developed in the year 1980.
After Xenix came up with their multiple variants of the Microsoft Operating Systems.
The first in the category was the Microsoft -DOS Operating System which was invented in the year 1981 as part of the then-existing IBM personal computers.
The later versions were to satisfy the requirements posed by all the users that keep changing given the growth of technology.
As the company saw an expansive growth, so did the products manufactured and produced by them.
Newer times gave way to the creation of user-friendly hardware as well as software technologies such as MS Mouse and MS Press.
The company released products in recent times includes hardware such as Windows mobile, and software like Skype, MS Windows, MS Edge, MS Media, etc.
Main Differences Between Google and Microsoft
- While Microsoft came into being a long time before the internet era was created, Google came about around the time the internet expanded the area of coverage among users.
- While Google was developed as part of a research project for two colleagues for their Ph. D, Microsoft was created by two childhood friends to create an easier space for users and develop hardware.
- Microsoft has its main products as the software that is the OS Windows which includes various versions depending on-time passage whereas Google concentrated all its efforts on their search engine.
- The profits made by Microsoft comes from the sale of software-related products like Operating Systems and MS office systems but the profits gained by Google comes from the sale of online advertisement provided to various website owners and hence increasing the inflow of customers for them.
- For Google, almost every product comes free of cost for their users whereas in the case of Microsoft the services and equipment offered by them should be brought at a price.
Conclusion
Both the companies are competitors in the same field striving to create a better and user-friendly space for the customers.
Even though their mainstream service and products vary, some of their products can be considered as head-on competitors such as Bing and Google search, Internet Explorer and Chrome, MS Offices and Google Docs, etc.
It is common knowledge that almost all the people technologically active use both the company’s products and services simultaneously as it is inevitable to not.
The Microsoft DOS can be considered as the version of the Operating systems that preceded the era of all the OS versions that came about later.
As Google tends to be less expensive or even free service, people angle towards their products as a pocket-friendly form of purchase.
References
- https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/sd.2007.05623jae.001/full/html
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/255656.255698