As I was reading this article on Daring Fireball, something new struck me. In the midst of all this competition between Apple and Google with Android, what about Microsoft? Google is the new Microsoft. They are the new rival to Apple, they license their software to hardware makers, and they seem to strive to create a product or service to compete with almost anything. Let me explain.

There's no doubt that the clear target of Google at this week's Google I/O conference was Apple. During the entire keynote, almost everything they said was directly aimed to take Apple down. They even referenced the iPad multiple times along with iPhone OS's lack of Flash. What happened to Microsoft? Microsoft used to be Apple's biggest competitor and vice versa. Now it doesn't even seem like Microsoft is in the ball park. There wasn't even any mention of the company at all. So why are Google and Microsoft so similar?

They take the same approach. Both companies license their software for other hardware vendors to load up on their own devices and ship. Microsoft did this from the start with Windows when Apple insisted on keeping Mac OS X on their own hardware. This is how Microsoft got the market share advantage -- multiple hardware vendors selling Microsoft software. This is the same way Android is going to rise above iPhone, and it apparently already is. iPhone OS may be better, but as far as market share Android is clearly going to pass iPhone OS. On top of market share, both Microsoft and Google like to quickly take down their competition with any opportunity they get. As I previously stated, at Google I/O, Google did just that. With every new release of Microsoft Windows, it's clear Microsoft keeps trying to catch up with features Mac OS X already has, while adding a few features and ideas of their own.

They don't seem to have a single focus. Apple does. Apple has their focus of Macs, iPhones, iPods, and iPads. That's it. That is what their known for. While Microsoft may have Windows and Google may have search, both companies seem to branch out into everything else. Microsoft now has Office, Silverlight, Bing, Kin, Windows Phone 7, Zune HD, Windows Live services (Hotmail, Messenger, etc.), and much more. Google has Gmail, Android, YouTube, now Google TV, Google Buzz, Google Chrome, Chrome OS, Nexus One, Blogger, Earth, and much more as well. It seems like they just try to cover every possible market. In my opinion, it's very hard to be the best at so many different things. It's easier to be the best at just a few or even just one.

They both now have their own operating system. It still befuddles me to this day how Google can emerge from a small search engine to now having their own OS, Chrome OS. The only difference between Windows and Chrome OS is the aim. Windows has never been aimed toward the internet, the real foundation of computers today. Chrome OS changes that and aims toward the internet, probably everyone's favorite program on their computer. It's like a modern-day version of Windows. While it will probably never pass Windows, it's clear Google wants a slice in everybody's market share for absolutely everything. Both Microsoft and Google always churn out new products that are aimed as competition toward Apple.

So now you know. Google is the new Microsoft. As Microsoft declines in market share each day with Windows, Windows Mobile, and others, Google rises. Will we be seeing Google in the same position as Microsoft in a decade? Will Google be declining as well as Apple slowly but steadily rises even more? Time will tell. And what will happen to Microsoft? Microsoft and Google have a lot of copying innovating to do.