Bill Gates

They bought a Quantiv, and that didn't go well. It was $7 billion, and they ended up declaring basically the whole thing a write-off. So Microsoft is desperate for search market share, and between their internal efforts with MSN Search and I believe it was called Windows Live Search, they were not making much progress there. And at the same time, Internet Explorer had totally languished.

They bought a Quantiv, and that didn't go well. It was $7 billion, and they ended up declaring basically the whole thing a write-off. So Microsoft is desperate for search market share, and between their internal efforts with MSN Search and I believe it was called Windows Live Search, they were not making much progress there. And at the same time, Internet Explorer had totally languished.

Microsoft had completely taken their eye off the ball of the browser wars from 10 years earlier. And IE was just widely regarded as a garbage browser. And web developers hated it because it made you write a bunch of weird custom stuff so randomly things wouldn't work in IE. Users hated it because basically nothing new was coming.

Microsoft had completely taken their eye off the ball of the browser wars from 10 years earlier. And IE was just widely regarded as a garbage browser. And web developers hated it because it made you write a bunch of weird custom stuff so randomly things wouldn't work in IE. Users hated it because basically nothing new was coming.

Every time a new version of the operating system would ship, it just felt like it's the same old Internet Explorer over and over again. And you have Firefox coming on the scene starting around 2007, where it was really making a dent, and Google was the default search from Firefox.

Every time a new version of the operating system would ship, it just felt like it's the same old Internet Explorer over and over again. And you have Firefox coming on the scene starting around 2007, where it was really making a dent, and Google was the default search from Firefox.

Firefox was awesome. It had tabs, i.e. didn't have tabs at the time.

Firefox was awesome. It had tabs, i.e. didn't have tabs at the time.

You know, Safari, I don't think Safari had tabs either. Chrome wasn't a thing yet. And so I know I'm on the one hand talking about search, on the other hand talking about the browser, but it's the same pot of gold. But it's the same thing. Right.

You know, Safari, I don't think Safari had tabs either. Chrome wasn't a thing yet. And so I know I'm on the one hand talking about search, on the other hand talking about the browser, but it's the same pot of gold. But it's the same thing. Right.

Yes. So the thing that you kind of have to realize is the browser is the front door to search. Search is heavily, heavily monetizable. And if you're Google and you can monetize it directly, that's great. But let's say you're not Google.

Yes. So the thing that you kind of have to realize is the browser is the front door to search. Search is heavily, heavily monetizable. And if you're Google and you can monetize it directly, that's great. But let's say you're not Google.

Let's say you're Firefox or Microsoft or Apple and you don't have this incredible business model of people bidding on the keywords for search and all the R&D to go into making search good, but you actually do have the user attention, the front door. Well, you get to monetize it too.

Let's say you're Firefox or Microsoft or Apple and you don't have this incredible business model of people bidding on the keywords for search and all the R&D to go into making search good, but you actually do have the user attention, the front door. Well, you get to monetize it too.

The rumors are that Apple makes something on the order of $20 billion a year today in 2024 from Google as being the front door to Google, sending all of the iPhone search traffic to Google.

The rumors are that Apple makes something on the order of $20 billion a year today in 2024 from Google as being the front door to Google, sending all of the iPhone search traffic to Google.

Absolutely. And so if you can be in the business of operating a scale search engine, or you can be in the business of directing traffic to a scaled search engine who is willing to pay you for that traffic, it's going to be a great business. So David, as you just said, the way to monetize the browser is owning and operating or directing to a search engine. So search isn't going well at Microsoft.

Absolutely. And so if you can be in the business of operating a scale search engine, or you can be in the business of directing traffic to a scaled search engine who is willing to pay you for that traffic, it's going to be a great business. So David, as you just said, the way to monetize the browser is owning and operating or directing to a search engine. So search isn't going well at Microsoft.

At first, it was sort of because they just didn't take it seriously enough. When Google first started in 1998, I think there was a lot of skepticism that the auction based advertising business would really work. And then there was skepticism that it would really scale. And then when it went public, people were sort of looking at it, almost freaked out at how profitable it was.

At first, it was sort of because they just didn't take it seriously enough. When Google first started in 1998, I think there was a lot of skepticism that the auction based advertising business would really work. And then there was skepticism that it would really scale. And then when it went public, people were sort of looking at it, almost freaked out at how profitable it was.