Microsoft still trying to answer Google's wake-up call | CNET News.com

Stimulus/response... 

Beyond advertising, the second major influence of Google on Microsoft has been to point to the importance of being able to offer software-based services, he noted. Ozzie made several references to work Microsoft is doing behind the scenes to build a companywide services engine. All of its business units will be able to tap into the engine to add services components to their products, and those tools eventually will be available outside Redmond as well.

"We've been building that services platform," Ozzie said. "The economies of scale that we gain internally are going to be available to third-party developers and enterprises."

Source: Microsoft still trying to answer Google's wake-up call | CNET News.com