Google the new MS?

Headline: (hat tip to scott)
Digital Media Asia: News - NASA, Google to collaborate on 'entrepreneurial space industry'

All these marvelous, surprising and enthusiastic things that Google keeps getting into, and the hundreds of things you assume they are doing behind the scenes in their "labs" as we speak makes me keep thinking about the difference. The contrast between their actions and Microsoft's way of doing things, years ago, and even now.

For example Microsoft often bought out other companies not to have the new idea and do something exciting, but sometimnes in a defensive way, to put a competitor out of business so they wouldn't stop MS and their ho-hum ordinary stuff from succeeding. Suing rivals to slow them down, doing anything to prevail.

Google bursts out with a whole different attitude, like acquiring Keyhole to introduce Google Earth. They knew they could do something great with it, and they did. Microsoft always was predatory, never appreciating the third party software and even hardware (I mean, what was MS, a software company doing making mice or emulator boards for Apple II?) that helped them become the monopoly that they thought they had to be to keep from failing.

Instead, Google seems to have the crazy idea that if they do great, interesting and useful things, people will like that, and that will drive success. I certainly hope they prove that that is the better way to go about things.