When Google wanted to weaken Microsoft, it brought the fight to Microsoft's home territory (early speculation raged about a Google browser, Google made sure that Firefox was a success, Google launched Google Toolbar and Google Desktop, etc). Google spent a lot of money fighting Microsoft on its own turf. And Google has always been interested in tempting developers away from Windows (which has long ceased to be a sexy platform for which to develop).Seeing itself as the incumbent, Microsoft has not yet done the same. Microsoft still believes the place to fight battles is on Microsoft land. Not just Windows - Live Search is Microsoft bringing the Google fight to Microsoft territory (alas, territory that no one visits).
As we spend more time online, including with growing Firefox market share, and with growing Google/YouTube market share, the platform that users most interact with will become Google land, not Microsoft land. And when cloud computing does take off, even if that takes another decade or two, Windows will become irrelevant (incidentally, android suggests that Google is not philosophically opposed to client-side operating systems, it's just easier to promote cloud computing than to replace Windows). Consumer mindshare will belong to the hardware, the browser or the websites (or perhaps the access provider if ISPs manage to replicate the success of mobile operators). Google already beats Microsoft in web mindshare, is catching up in browser mindshare if you count the once-Google-in-disguise Firefox, and through One Laptop Per Child has shown its interest in hardware. It is not a coincidence that one of the effects of Chrome's interface is to minimise the way it looks like an application through which you view the internet - thus reducing the importance of desktop applications altogether.
So how can Microsoft bring the fight to Google's doorstep?
Firefox has become a development platform (through Greasemonkey and various add-ons). Extensions such as Customize Google (remove AdWords ads, add links to other search engines, etc) and Google Preview (preview thumbnails of the websites listed) let me customize the Google search results page to be quite different from the way Google intended it. And if Google is right that its design is perfectly tuned to maximise search monetisation, then these extensions must be costing Google money (they are unlikely to be increasing monetisation - Google's the expert at that, not small-guy Firefox developers).
For example, here is a normal Google search results page:
And here is the same page using the above two extensions:
These extensions are using Firefox as a development platform, and more specifically Google. They are adding features to the Google search page in ways that surely Marissa Mayer would rather they did not.
Now, it may not be a good idea for Microsoft to launch its own browser extension that removes AdWords (I think the IE8 feature is not quite the same thing), but even extensions with genuinely useful features (such as the two above) could unbalance the Google search results pages. And Microsoft could not only develop those for Firefox, which is still the minority browser, but enable them on Internet Explorer. Microsoft could drive the adoption of such extensions beyond the geek crowd.
Firefox also provides command-line capabilities. Unlike most users, I don't access Google Images through the Google homepage, because I've set up a search keyword that I enter directly from the Firefox address bar. For the same reason, I no longer go through Google to access Wikipedia, IMDB, eBay, Amazon or YouTube. If Microsoft popularises the use of address bar search keywords (a genuinely useful feature), Google could lose important chunks of traffic. And if part of Google's intent through Chrome is to change or tap into the actual behaviour of web browsing, then models such as Ubiquity (which adds even more command-line functionality to Firefox) become even more relevant to Microsoft. Thinking of the browser, and Google.com, as the new Windows (in real terms, not just as an academic discussion) could help Microsoft weaken Google's control over its own search revenues.
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