Robert Scoble wants Microsoft to be perceived as a “we” company. I’ve taken a few jabs at Microsoft here in the past, but you know what? I’ll give them credit for already making big steps towards becoming “we” instead of “us.” The most obvious example is how Microsoft has embraced blogging in a much larger – and much more honest – way than many other companies. The mere fact that Scoble’s blog exists shows that they’re taking “we” seriously, and they deserve some recognition for this despite their past indiscretions.
Scoble also suggests that Microsoft needs to get along better with others, and he’s put his finger on Microsoft’s biggest problem right now: lack of trust. Let’s face it, even Microsoft’s friends don’t trust the company due to past behavior, and that’s a hard thing to overcome.
Funny enough, this is another lessen that Google may find itself forced to learn. As the auto-link controversy showed, there are a lot of people who are starting to mistrust Google, and Google will find it extremely difficult to keep expanding without the trust of its users. So far I’ve given Google the benefit of the doubt and have continued to believe that they really are working to make the world a better place by enabling access to information. But it will take a single big misstep for me to change my mind.