Google Chrome, while still in beta, has been slowly finding its way onto increasingly larger percentages of existing computers. Google Wave has been released to developers and may practically re-invent the way we work on the internet. Twitter Search has forced Google’s hand into pushing for more real-time searches and the unveiling of Google Caffeine. Google OS has been announced for release in a couple years.

Bing has single-handedly saved Microsoft search from plunging into the depths of internet obscurity, while reversing the decreasing revenue trends that normally spell death for a search network. Microsoft has also pulled off a coup almost two years in the making by assuming the role of Yahoo’s search engine. Microsoft has issued a widespread beta release of their version of the Content Network.
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This winner-take-all chess match should also determine if the desktop machine will remain the preeminent computational workhouse with cloud-computing a serious option.

We get it guys. You’re two technology behemoths that are in a no-holds-barred, fight to the death to see who will define Web 3.0. Well that’s just it isn’t it? It won’t be Microsoft or Google that get to decide the internet’s advancement. The users get a seat at the big-kid table, too. If the user didn’t get the say, then Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter would have never entered our common geek vernacular.

Not a day goes by without the two juggernauts beating their chest about something or other. Meanwhile, they’re still behind in the real-time search field, and Facebook just got FriendFeed for their part. The last-time I checked Ask was still pretty competitive with Bing in search volume. Apple is quickly eating up the mobile devices department with its own iPhone. Firefox is making huge leaps and bounds in the browser wars.

It’s fun to watch while big companies go head-to-head. The only winner can be the consumer. Still, let’s not take our eyes off the ball, and remember what counts; the user.