Watching Google rake in advertising revenue “was a wake-up call within Microsoft,” the company’s top technical executive, Ray Ozzie, said.
But he said Microsoft plans to do more than simply mimic Google by rolling out web-based versions of desktop programs or following its particular search and advertising model.
Ozzie, who has only made a handful of appearances since his promotion last June to replace Bill Gates as a chief software architect, told analysts and investors on Tuesday at a Goldman Sachs conference in Las Vegas that he has been laying the groundwork for programmers across the company to build Internet-based software.