“Many industry executives and analysts initially played down the
messaging standoff between AOL and Microsoft as a relatively
confined skirmish between two companies pushing their versions of
similar products. But a closer look reveals some unsettling
parallels between this conflict and the early days of the
now-legendary rivalry between Microsoft and Netscape
Communications over the Web browser.
‘This is exactly the same thing that Microsoft did in ’95-’96.
They basically said that Netscape was the evil empire and that it
didn’t stick to standards,’ said Ramanathan Guha, chief technology
officer of start-up Epinions and former principal engineer with
Netscape. ‘Now that they seem to be ahead in the browser wars,
they’ve put a different spin on things. Everybody but the leader
likes open standards.’ “
“Just as the PC fundamentally changed the way we work, Web-based
technologies are defining the era of Internet computing and
revolutionizing the way we live. Yesterday it was browsers, today
instant messaging, and tomorrow digital wallets, interactive video,
and an entirely new Web language called XML–all areas where
Microsoft is heavily involved.”
” ‘For the first time, a complete product that is completely
Microsoft-free is now within reach,” said David Cassel, publisher
of the AOL Watch newsletter and frequent critic of the online
service. It is this kind of talk that worries Microsoft most: the
specter of new products that ignite enthusiasm among the masses and
threaten to grow well beyond their original designs, much like
today’s PalmPilot craze. AOL, with its purported 17 million members
and 78 million registrations for instant messaging, could spark an
Internet wildfire.”