Google This! - Proving once again that there's no technology others can innovate that it can't engulf and ruin -- er, "embrace and extend" -- Microsoft recently announced its plans to go after the Internet search engine market. This surely means that the perennial latecomer will once again offer us an inferior product that's so inextricably intertwined with its monopoly OS or business software that you won't have any choice but to use it. (Oh, trust us, you really do need a search bar on your MS Word menu!)

Really, does Steve Ballmer have, at long last, no sense of decency? Can't he use even a portion of Redmond's vast hordes of cash to create something new that others haven't already thought of? Sometimes I wonder if they ever have an original thought in their entire collective hive brain. Besides, I'm sure this is partly a ploy to shroud Google's upcoming IPO in a fog of FUD.