[DAN PULCRANO, SV411]
Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer embedded himself in Google’s physical and virtual ecosystem Tuesday to evangelize the Bing search engine to attendees of the search engine conference SMX West. Mounting the stage at the Santa Clara Convention Center Tuesday morning with a raise of his eyebrows, a head nod to the audience and a bounce in his step, the animated CEO wore a cherry V-neck sweater and tan balmoral shoes for the armchair sitdown with search industry icon Danny Sullivan.
The visit underscored the technology giant’s seriousness about reinventing at least one major tentacle as a media company, despite previous failures like Sidewalk, MSNBC and Slate. Having been sent home packing in its attempt to overpay for Yahoo a year ago, Microsoft skunkworked an algorhythmic search tool with a fruity brand and colorful interface that has been well accepted both by users and the professional search community.
The advertising and optimization industry, of course, welcomes competition at a time when it seemed like the End of History had arrived with the dominance of the company Ballmer tried to refer to as “blah blah blah” rather than by its name.
Zeroing in on Google’s Achilles heel—the privacy thing—Ballmer tried to sound introspective as he sipped a Starbuck’s iced tea and shared the admission that “one of the things we have to spend a lot of time thinking about” is “the evolution of privacy.” He asked for input and gave his email address from the podium.
For much of the interview, Ballmer exercised his legendary pipes, bragging and shouting high volume pronouncements like “We do have ambitions to grow,” “You don’t do things with the goal of being second” and “I guarantee you search will be an ever-growing share of Microsoft’s profits.” (Microsoft’s search business is currently unprofitable, he noted.)
He fielded questions about whether Microsoft would bid to acquire Facebook or Twitter. Ballmer called both companies good partners who wished to stay independent. On Twitter, he said, “Whether we need to own that property is not clear.”
Switching from corporate acquirer to rebel-dude personal-bonding mode, Ballmer admitted using mobile search while driving. “I do have to be a little careful,” he said sheepishly.
Most remarkable was the ease with which Ballmer flipped binarily between Xbox-challenged self-deprecating family guy to boastful CEO— much the way his company plays the role of monopolist Sasquatch of the Northwest and Silicon Valley underdog with equal fluidity.
When a company of Microsoft’s girth sends its biggest gun into enemy territory, it’s generally more than a scouting expedition. The big voice of Microsoft’s unmodulated message will no doubt be picked up by seismographs at the Googleplex 8.1 miles away (according to Google Maps).
Afterwards, a sound technician walked over the front rows and apologized for the decibel level. “I turned him down 19 times.” he said. “It didn’t do any good.”