By Joel LeydenIsrael News Agency
Jerusalem----October 30 ….He came, he saw, but did he conquer?Bill Gates, the Microsoft CEO, made his first trek to Israel, but his media presence was upstaged by a terror bombing in Hadera. In addition, most likely due to Gates strict security contingent, his schedule was not broadcast by the Government Press Office which usually provides the schedules of visiting heads of state and celebrities.
Gates arrival in Israel was not coincidental. The co-creator of Microsoft did not turn into a Zionist overnight. One just needs to quickly look at Israel's hi-tech headlines the month before. Does one remember the story about Google opening an office in Israel? Bill Gates does. So does Microsoft Israel and their marketing team. But why would Bill Gates risk his life coming to Israel - a tiny Island of democracy in the Middle-East which bleeds nearly every day as a result of Islamic terrorism?
Bill Gates did not become the wealthiest man on the planet by winning the lottery. Current reports estimate that Gates is worth 30 billion. Rather he was in the right place at the right time. With a brilliant mind and the dedication of a workaholic, Gates made and has kept his wealth. He is an excellent businessman with several finely tuned visions of tomorrow's workplace and he plans to retain his place as a world leader.So with or without Hamas, Al Qaeda and Islamic Jihad, Gates would come to Israel to do battle on Google's new turf. Gates would not have the Google flag planted in Israel without a fight. But would Gates also address terrorism while in Israel?
Bill Gates went about his average business signing a meager but symbolic 1.4-million-dollar agreement with Israel to encourage Israel start- up companies. "It's no exaggeration to say that the kind of innovation going on in Israel is critical to the future of the technology business," Gates, who spent only 24 hours in Israel, told a news conference in Tel Aviv with Acting Israel Finance Minister Ehud Olmert. "So many great companies have been started here," he said, adding Israel had been "fairly unique", along with the United States, in creating new products, patents and copyrighted software. Gates, who left the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv met later in the day with Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon. The two announced a project making computers available to 250,000 underprivileged Israeli pupils.
But the real business appeared to be Google. Most media reports from Israel transmitted very general soundbytes making Bill Gates appear warm and cordial. Even Israel Jerusalem Post criticized the Gates visit as all to do with nothing. But the Post reporter did not have his eyes on the ball.
Google and Microsoft are at war. They are spending millions in research and marketing to out do one another. Google is aiming on taking down the Microsoft operating system and replacing it with their own. After all why should Google be second with a search toolbar clinging uncertainly to a Windows browser? And why should Microsoft all but be forgotten with its 12 percent market share in the search and SEO markets?
Microsoft plans to upgrade their search technology in the next six months, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates said in remarks Wednesday. As Gates praised Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Israel's contributions to the global high-tech market. Bill Gates also answered questions about Microsoft's fierce competition with Mountain View, California-based Google. "We are not afraid of Google, but there is intense competition between us. Google is our main competitor, brilliant people work there, but Internet search engines are still in a terrible state compared to where they could be," Gates was quoted as saying in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot.
"This is a situation that we hope will change for the better in the next six months. We are working on it, as are other companies, such as Google and Yahoo," Gates added in comments that were translated into Hebrew.
Microsoft and Yahoo already have been investing heavily in search, hoping to narrow Google's lead in the field. Google processed 45 percent of US search requests and SEO activity in September, outdistancing 23 percent for Yahoo and 12 percent for Microsoft's MSN, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Gates denied the Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft intends to acquire Google or other leading Internet companies. Microsoft has recently formed partnerships with Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) and RealNetworks Inc., and is reportedly interested in buying a stake in Time Warner Inc.'s AOL service.
Google also has teamed up with with Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable company, to explore buying a minority stake in AOL. Microsoft is sometimes criticized as a giant that crushes competition. Gates' response to the Maariv daily: "Maybe when you succeed there is always someone who will oppose you." Israel, Gates said, does "fantastic things in the field of technology and I am excited to be here." Israel has especially contributed to the area of data security, Gates was quoted as saying in Maariv, largely due to expertise acquired by the Israeli military. Many high-tech workers in Israel received training from elite military units in areas such as encryption and computer security.
Now, have we discovered the second reason for Gates visit to Israel? In taking Google head on would it not make sense for Microsoft, Bill Gates, the Israel Ministry of Defense and the Israel Defense Forces to cooperate as Gates advises the US military and Homeland security? But none of this would be stated openly. No one would dare speak of the Gates - Sharon meeting in Israel as one to do with democracy's war against global Islamic terrorism. Was Gates also meeting with the head of the Mossad, the Shaback and their computer heads or just discussing giving away computers to poor children living in Israel?
Just one day after the Gates - Sharon meeting in Jerusalem, Microsoft announced that it would team up with the US Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Action to promote PC protection. If Gates is eager to work with the FTC, then how about the FBI and CIA?
Gates has enormous respect for Israel, Israel's ability to defend herself and Israel most worthy asset - brain-power."Israel has enormous power in the high-tech world, most people know that Israel, relative to its size, has made achievements in the field of technology," Gates told Maariv. Gates refused to say whether Microsoft plans to expand its 200-person facility in the coastal Israeli city of Haifa. Expansion of the Haifa facility would provide more jobs in Israel's highly competitive high-tech market. Israel is considered to be one of the world's leaders in high-tech products, which account for half of the country's exports. Many large technology companies, including Microsoft, Motorola and Intel, have sizable research operations in Israel. Google Inc. recently placed advertisements in Israel newspapers recruiting Israel engineers for its Ireland-based operations. "The business achievements of Microsoft in Israel are excellent and the company is currently working to massively expand its research and development budgets worldwide," Gates was quoted as saying in Israel's largest Hebrew daily Yediot.
“Considering the density of Israeli start-ups and local successes, Israel is like a bit of Silicon Valley,” Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates told "Globes" yesterday. Gates said that being the richest man in the world “is a privilege, but also a responsibility.” He said that working at Microsoft and the charity fund to which he contributes required great responsibility, but also helped him enjoy life. “I don’t think about money all day; I think about software and about my family.” The only thing that disturbed Gates’s calm was questions about Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Microsoft’s young, dynamic competitor. Gates said that Google wasn’t a player in Microsoft’s field, adding that it had copied some of its products from other companies.
”Their product line is rather narrow, and there’s nothing innovative about most of their products. The Internet is much less developed than it could be. Large investments by Google, Yahoo!, and us in this field is like a couple investing in their honeymoon,” Gates remarked. Gates believes that the mobile computer will eventually replace textbooks.
“Computers will be thinner and cheaper, will be based on working through voice identification, and will benefit from ubiquitous wireless Internet. This will change the way we read and learn,” he predicted. Gates said that, in the future, the computer would look completely different from what we know today. It will be based on wireless equipment, television, and other hardware devices connected to each other. He added that he and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen had predicted 30 years ago that every home would have a computer. “It seemed like a crazy idea to many people. We knew then that we were on to something big, and it seemed odd to us that other people didn’t see the opportunity. I expect the next ten years in the industry to be much more exciting than the past 30 years,” he concluded.
Bill Gates left Israel for Europe and the recently terror hit, bus and underground bombed city of London where the Microsoft chairman predicted “the future of advertising is the internet” in a speech during his first official visit to the UK in two years. Gates spoke to 45O members of the advertising and marketing industry at the Engage 2005 conference, organised by the Internet Advertising Bureau. Gates stated that traditional brands would move further into the digital world as boundaries blur between the virtual and the physical.
Gates said the future was not far off in which the internet powered all technology and media would be delivered by broadband through high-definition multi-purpose televisions. He said a wealth of possibilities would open up for the marketer and SEO as consumers had access to everything via the internet – with both advertising and content becoming personalised and inter-active, allowing consumers to watch what they wanted, when they wanted and how they wanted. "In the future we'll see even more convergence, and it will be hard to say what is and what isn't internet-based," he said.
Yes, Gates has his eyes on Google which is quickly turning into the world's largest advertising agency and which just announced that it has hired businessman Johnny Chou to establish and lead Google's sales and business development operations in Greater China. But is it the Google challenge that turns on the world's wealthiest man or going down in history that he personally helped to track down the very roots of Islamic terrorism, from Washington's Pentagon, London's Downing Street to the Israel Prime Minister's Office?
Either way, with Gates bravely coming into terror hit Israel, with terror bombers blowing up innocent civilians just miles from his hotel, one must commend Bill Gates for transcending the Google war and keeping his personal agenda to himself. Gates did not need a trip to Israel Yad Veshem Holocaust memorial, as many visiting dignitaries are provided. Gates, I am sure remembers the brutal terrorism of 9/11, watching New York's World Trade Center burn and crumble, smoke rising from the Pentagon and asking himself: "what can I do to prevent this from happening again."
The author, Joel Leyden, helped create Israel's first commercial Website, NetKing, in 1995 and today serves as Israel number one ranked SEO (search engine optimization) and international public relations, public affairs and crisis communications consultant.
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