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Google and Microsoft jostle for desktop position

Stefanie Olsen CNET News.com

Published: 24 May 2004 10:50 BST

Rough road ahead?
Google could establish a foothold -- and a competitive edge -- in this desktop search market by getting in early with free consumer software, supported by advertising. Also, it could broaden its advertising into a much more intimate PC environment, off the Web, where people spend at least 50 percent of their time.

Yet the company would instantly encounter new challenges.

AltaVista, now owned by Yahoo, was among the first to take a stab at desktop search, but its product failed to catch on. Since then, a slew of companies have developed downloadable software applications to address the problem, including Copernic, Groxis, Enfish, 8020 and X1 Technologies. None have gathered critical mass.

Research firm IDC has estimated that sales of software for search represented a $617m market in 2003.

"It's a tough market, lots of companies have come and gone," said Andrew Feit, a senior vice president of marketing for corporate search technology provider Verity.

Although Google has mainly avoided controversy over its Web search ads, it runs the risk of alienating consumers if it misplays its hand in a downloadable application that aims to sort through private material, critics say.

Adware companies such as Claria and WhenU are trotting out new desktop applications to appeal to consumers and support their ad businesses. Claria and WhenU began by bundling their advertising software with other popular file-sharing applications so they could increase the number of people they might track for ad purposes. These companies monitor people as they surf the Web and send targeted ads based on their behaviour. The practices have landed them and many others in court, where they have argued for their right to deliver ads to the Web sites of their customers' rivals.

In a sign of growing overlap between Web search advertising and ad-supported desktop tools, Yahoo's Overture subsidiary has struck a deal to display tiny text advertisements through Claria and WhenU.

State and federal governments are now interested in regulating and perhaps even banning adware and its more controversial cousin spyware. Utah has already enacted such a law, and the US House of Representatives and the Federal Trade Commission have convened hearings on the issue in the last few weeks.

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Why do so many (virtually all) software packages think that they are so important that they have to be started automatically every time the computer boots? What is the largest number of "speed access", "update check", "camera download" and whatever other background programs you have ever seen running? Of those, how many did you really need?