Microsoft warns Google off business search

Microsoft and Google are following increasingly similar paths in the business software market

Microsoft has warned Google to steer clear of corporate search, declaring that the market is "our house". 

"Enterprise search is our business, it's our house and Google is not going to take that business," said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft, addressing 7,000 delegates at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference in Boston. 

"Those people are not going to be allowed to take food off our plate, because that is what they are intending to do."

The occasion was Turner's second appearance at a Microsoft conference since he joined the company from Wal-Mart 11 months ago. 

Turner's tough talk followed Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer's declarations about the importance of search.

"Search from the desktop to the enterprise to the internet is a business of great importance and a market of great importance to us," he said.

Ballmer added that the enterprise search market represents more than $13bn (£7.1bn), and that Microsoft has signed up 35 partners to focus on this area.

Microsoft and Google are following increasingly similar paths in the business software market.

New business tools such as Google Spreadsheets and Google Calendar are seen by some as a threat to Microsoft's desktop application business, and it seems that Redmond is losing patience. 

In what some see as a response, Microsoft is channelling its energy and investment into developing corporate search tools.

For example, Windows Live Search Center, part of the upcoming Windows Vista operating system, will allow users to search data in Office and desktop system files.

As well as firing a warning shot at Google, Turner said that Microsoft is also gearing up to take on IBM and Oracle, among other competitors, with new products slated for launch in the next few months.