Grabbed off of CNET
Microsoft, Google may go head-to-head
By Jim Hu and Mike Ricciuti
Staff Writers, CNET News.com
June 25, 2003, 4:00 AM PT

Microsoft's path to expand the Windows empire is leading directly to search king Google.
The software company this month quietly launched a new search program called MSNBot, which scours the Web to build an index of HTML links and documents. The homegrown system--which performs robot functions previously left to Inktomi and other partners--may pose a significant threat to Google if Microsoft fulfills its promise to make the program a cornerstone of its overall PC and services strategies

Neither Google nor Microsoft made executives available for this report. However, in a recent interview with The Seattle Times, Microsoft executive Jim Allchin said condescendingly: "Google's a very nice system, but compared to my vision, it's pathetic."