Mar. 26th 2009
It was 2005， and Gary William Flake， the head of research for Yahoo， was visiting Microsoft. Senior executives had been calling for a year， trying to coax him to come meet a few people and hear them out.
Now Microsoft wanted to acquire Flake. Bill Gates wanted to pick his brain about how Microsoft could turn its advanced research into actual produces more quickly-generating the sort of dazzling web breakthroughs Microsoft isn't known for.
All about Microsoft
Microsoft's desktop applications and platforms still generate the vast majority of the company's $17.7billion annual profit. Its products run more than 90 present of the world's personal computers. So it's not surprising the Microsoft has been slow to pursue other technologies， especially ones that could potentially disrupt its money machine or that lack a clear business model.
The flip side of this focus is that Microsoft has fallen far behind on some of the biggest tech growth industries. CEO Steve Ballmer has said that Microsoft's future lies in ad sales， not software sales. He's laid out a vision of "software plus services"-desktop applications combined with Internet features. Meanwhile， the likes of Google， Facebook and Apple have gotten big head starts， running away with the dominant models in web search， social networking and online music distribution. Those companies， not Microsoft， are most often praised as innovators.
Taking leaps forward
To Flake， 41， a techie steeped in experimentation and risk taking， that paradox represents a "historic" opportunity-not just to bring Microsoft up to speed but to radically advance the Internet experience. He's not interested in making incremental improvements， he says， but rather the kind of great technological leaps that Microsoft is going to need. In Microsoft's reach of more than a billion computer users worldwide， Flake sees an unparalleled collective power； the more people contribute date to a site， he says， the richer it becomes for each user. This powerful network effect represents Microsoft's advantage.
Vocabulary Focus
Coax （v）哄勸
To persuade someone gently to do something or go somewhere， by being kind and patient， or by appearing to be
Pick （someone's） brain （idiom）聽取專家的建議；向?qū)＜仪蠼?BR> To ask for information or advice from someone who knows more about a subject than you do
Flip side （n phr）對立面；唱片的反面
The opposite， less good or less popular side of something
Up to speed （idom） 掌握并精通最新資訊
To have all the latest information about a subject or an activity
Unparalleled （adj）無比的；空前未有的
Having no equal； better or greater than any other
It was 2005， and Gary William Flake， the head of research for Yahoo， was visiting Microsoft. Senior executives had been calling for a year， trying to coax him to come meet a few people and hear them out.
Now Microsoft wanted to acquire Flake. Bill Gates wanted to pick his brain about how Microsoft could turn its advanced research into actual produces more quickly-generating the sort of dazzling web breakthroughs Microsoft isn't known for.
All about Microsoft
Microsoft's desktop applications and platforms still generate the vast majority of the company's $17.7billion annual profit. Its products run more than 90 present of the world's personal computers. So it's not surprising the Microsoft has been slow to pursue other technologies， especially ones that could potentially disrupt its money machine or that lack a clear business model.
The flip side of this focus is that Microsoft has fallen far behind on some of the biggest tech growth industries. CEO Steve Ballmer has said that Microsoft's future lies in ad sales， not software sales. He's laid out a vision of "software plus services"-desktop applications combined with Internet features. Meanwhile， the likes of Google， Facebook and Apple have gotten big head starts， running away with the dominant models in web search， social networking and online music distribution. Those companies， not Microsoft， are most often praised as innovators.
Taking leaps forward
To Flake， 41， a techie steeped in experimentation and risk taking， that paradox represents a "historic" opportunity-not just to bring Microsoft up to speed but to radically advance the Internet experience. He's not interested in making incremental improvements， he says， but rather the kind of great technological leaps that Microsoft is going to need. In Microsoft's reach of more than a billion computer users worldwide， Flake sees an unparalleled collective power； the more people contribute date to a site， he says， the richer it becomes for each user. This powerful network effect represents Microsoft's advantage.
Vocabulary Focus
Coax （v）哄勸
To persuade someone gently to do something or go somewhere， by being kind and patient， or by appearing to be
Pick （someone's） brain （idiom）聽取專家的建議；向?qū)＜仪蠼?BR> To ask for information or advice from someone who knows more about a subject than you do
Flip side （n phr）對立面；唱片的反面
The opposite， less good or less popular side of something
Up to speed （idom） 掌握并精通最新資訊
To have all the latest information about a subject or an activity
Unparalleled （adj）無比的；空前未有的
Having no equal； better or greater than any other