This article in the New York Times ponders Microsoft's seeming drift into irrelevance and quotes Google's Dave Girouard as saying, "The big difference in technology here is the pace of innovation." But as a developer using both Microsoft and Google technologies, I can tell you what the difference is.
When I wanted to develop a new service using Google's technology their first question was, "How can we help?" When I wanted to develop using Microsoft's their first question was, "Where's your check for $100,000?"
True story.
