Fortune’s Josh Quittner recently had an article published in the magazine’s Techland blog about Microsoft’s supposedly discomforting aggression against Web 2.0 companies that offer their users the ability to import “contacts they’ve accumulated (in) Microsoft Hotmail.” Quittner references several associates – whose anonymity he maintains - as having received cease-and-desist letters to that effect. They claimed to have later met with reps from Redmond, who systematically made various attempts to “integrate (Live) Messenger into their service.”
Yet another example of poor ethics employed by the world’s largest software vendor. But is it out-and-out wrong for Microsoft to go to such lengths?
In a word, no. Microsoft does indeed exercise its power well past any “appropriate” soft limits. And it may go about its business very unfairly. But it may certainly work to protect its assets – regardless of whether its assets do or do not require or request such protection.
We’re all quite aware of Microsoft’s determination to dominate. That drive is a fundamental component found at the core of most all projects it manages. But if that persistence – which can certainly be unreasonable in its intensity – brings about clashes with competitors and/or third parties, Microsoft is entirely free to practice its strategy of keeping its empire as tightly knit as possible. Even if the use of such a tactic leads to its detriment.
While Microsoft may be proving stubborn in its acceptance of the concept of cross-compatibility and free migration of information to and from various Web services, it doesn’t have to play by the new rules that govern more and more of the Web 2.0 world. It can certainly opt for the isolationist route.
Of course, why Microsoft’s head honchos would wish to do so is beyond us. It doesn’t exactly portend well for a company at the center of an industry whose most basic principles are continual change, advancement and adaptation to resist progress. Alas, it goes without saying that Microsoft is one of the most aged of technological greybeards, so it almost behooves Ballmer and the rest to reflexively kick and scream at some of the punk startups (I say that in the kindest tone) operated by eager and ambitious 20- and 30-somethings for stepping on their lawn.