If you have $5000 would you invest in shares of Google or Microsoft ?

I just read about the deal between Microsoft and Yahoo agreeing to combine their search engines as competition to Google. Started wondering what would be the long term outlook for both Microsoft and Google.

Microsoft is really getting soft with not many useful innovations or upgrades coming out. Their presence on the internet market is practically zero. Now their Operating System Windows is also under threat of rival Google which is going to introduce Chrome OS soon. Google has already introduced Chrome browser which has received critical acclaim by techies. Chrome does not crash as often as Windows and successive upgrades in Windows have not stabilized it and have in fact confused users.

Microsoft wanted to get in the Search Engine market dominated by Google (I understand Google has more than 80% market internationally and more than 65% in US) and its child Bing is too young to pose a threat to Google. So the move to acquire some bling by getting Yahoo engine so Bing can be marketed as a robust version. May work , but will take time.

Google has become a generic product and it will be difficult to wean away customers from that.

To add to its luster, Google is going after Apple’s share in the smart phone market with its Magic handset, which I understand integrates well several applications.

It is not a stretch to think that Google’s next project (or may be it already has a secret one under development) is in the music scene to compete with I Pod.

So Google seems to be looking to several innovations/applications whereas Microsoft is kind of floundering in the wild and does not know what to do with Windows and where to go next.

And remember Bill Gates has effectively moved away from Microsoft, pursuing his philanthropy. He is out to make a gentler image for himself in the world. So it seems the hunger to do business may be dimming at Microsoft.

Google on the other hand is readying its weapons on several fronts and it seems that it could expand its presence in several fields. The old adage that nothing succeeds like success may work for Google as it succeeds in new products/services.

Granted Google has an image problem, being the giant it is, just like Walmart, I would guess.

Still it is working smartly and it looks like the choice for investment would be Google.

Am I right ? Can Microsoft be dismissed too quickly and easily ?

Mighty interesting to watch.

PS: I just stumbled upon a website which allows one to simultaneously use Bing and Google SEs

http://www.bing-vs-google.com

Clever but at this rate we may have to increase the monitor size to accommodate everything. May be we can buy a 50'' LCD TV, put it up on the living room and play 'Search Game' for parties.