As competition heats up among major Web companies, a few are having to kick their clean-up initiatives into overdrive following the unscrupulous comments of certain loose-lipped executives. After
single-handedly causing his company's stock to sink 14 percent, Google's George Reyes' comments come to mind, although Google qualified his negative-sounding statements later that day to halve the
damage. A few weeks ago, Microsoft's European President Neil Holloway left many search industry watchers scratching their heads when he boldly proclaimed that Microsoft would be "more relevant" in the
U.S. market than Google in six short months. Ken Moss, general manager for Web search at MSN, later wrote on the company's blog: "We won't try to predict the progress of our competitors and so we
won't forecast when we might take the lead, but this is a long term game and we are committed to helping drive the next wave of innovation in search for our customers." In other words, it just isn't
possible to assume Google's lead in Web search in 6 months.
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