The enmity between Microsoft and Google has run quite deep for a long time, but it seems that Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai are looking to put an end to it. Microsoft and Google have had a number of regulatory complaints buzzing around about each other, mainly in the area of patents. Big companies patent trolling each other is a story that’s been done to death both in and out of the tech sphere, with big examples like Samsung and Apple or Google and Oracle coming to mind. It would appear, however, that there will be one less war going on; the Microsoft versus Google story apparently reached its conclusion on Friday.
The two companies deciding to bury the hatchet has been traced back to a number of causes, though some of those could actually be symptoms thereof, rather than reasons for the handshakes and hugs. For starters, Microsoft has seen their mobile OS tank in a fashion so grand that it’s practically unheard of in the mobile space. This led to them bringing many of their apps and services to Android and iOS. Where Cortana and desktop-style Microsoft Office used to be huge selling points for Windows phones, they’re now available on the competition’s devices. Nadella and Pichai are also reported to have a less formal relationship than their predecessors, able to speak to one another amicably and not butt heads over normal operations of their respective companies. Naturally, this has trickled down to employee relations on both sides.
It’s anybody’s guess as to how this will translate in respect to both companies’ current products. Microsoft’s snubbing of Google in Windows 10 and Google’s similar behavior with the desktop version of Google Now no longer being compatible with Windows may seem childish, but these behaviors are meant not only to box each other out, but to drive traffic to their own services; Google wants to keep Google Now on their own OSes, while Microsoft wants to use their OS to drive traffic to Bing and generate search revenue of their own. Also noteworthy is the fact that Microsoft will continue pursuing patent litigation against non-Google entities using Android.