Hell-bent Ballmer

Hiawatha Bray writes:

An ebullient Steve Ballmer, president and chief executive of Microsoft Corp., said yesterday that his company is "hell-bent and determined" to challenge Google Inc. for leadership in the Internet search business.

A longer excerpt from a CRN article:

"We see search as in the early phase of innovation and an area in which we underinvested," said Ballmer acknowledging that other smart ISVs, notably Google, spearheaded the category.

Ballmer pointed to AltaVista as Search Version 1.0, Yahoo as Search Version 2.0 and Google as Search Version 3.0. Microsoft, he said, will develop a next generation of search technology that would not only allow companies to search the Internet more effectively but search their computer networks, hard drives and e-mail more effectively.

"We're hell bent and determined to be an innovation leader in that," Ballmer said. "We had fragmented efforts and now we're pulling them all together."

[Thanks, SearchBlog, for pointing out the quote]