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Ask HN: Do current giants have more or less influence than Microsoft in the 90s

by ferros on 1/10/21, 11:48 PM with 5 comments

For those that lived through the antitrust period Microsoft went through in the 90’s, how would you compare the current slate of tech giants and their influence relative to that period.

Did Microsoft exert more control for their period than current tech giants do now? How did their hold and influence on markets compare to current market leaders in present times.

  • by uberman on 1/11/21, 12:10 AM

    Microsoft had more control from a platform perspective, in that they had as much platform control as app stores of today, just that they were basically the only game in town where today we have a number of "app stores" that exert the same type of monopoly control that MS once had. Perhaps it could even be argued that in the 90s MS had even less control than FB or Apple or Google in that MS (at least in the 90s) did not limit what you could install the way "app stores" today do.

    That said, Microsoft has never had the kind of overall control and influence that FAANGS do today in that they really did not collect "telemetry" nor maintain tracking on everything you did (at least as far as the 90s goes).

    I want to be clear that I'm not saying they would not have if they had realized the value of knowing every last thing about you the way that some companies do today. Just that they did not, and today's "giants" clearly have more influence and control over individuals than MS ever did.

  • by byoung2 on 1/11/21, 12:51 AM

    I think they have way more influence now. Take Google (not to pick on them specifically) and they have a hand in every aspect of a person's life. The popularity of Google Maps has changed the names of neighborhoods and nearly started a war [1]. YouTube algorithms control a large portion of the content people watch. Google search algorithms control what websites people visit. And there is no limit to the amount of data Android collects, like constant location data, pictures taken, apps used, sites visited, etc.

    1. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/technology/google-maps-ne....

  • by ThrowawayB7 on 1/11/21, 12:18 AM

    My take on it would be that Microsoft had as much influence (dominating the desktop) but over a much smaller domain (much fewer computers, the internet was just taking off, and smartphones/tablets weren't a thing yet). In that era, more or less only techies cared about Microsoft's antics. From the public's perspective, the only time they had any reason to think about Microsoft as a company was when their computer BSODed. It wasn't an constantly in your face brand the way Facebook, Google, Amazon, Twitter, etc. is today for pretty much everyone.

  • by wmf on 1/11/21, 12:05 AM

    Collectively, the tech giants are more powerful today. In the 90s there was at least a robust market for Windows apps (besides office suites or browsers); today the underlying platforms and many of the top apps are from the giants. I would say any individual tech company today is less influential than MS was, though.