If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, I recommend taking a look at this interview Bill Gates gave the BBC. In it he explains that people are not taking Microsoft’s commitment to search seriously and underestimate what Microsoft is going to achieve.

People are underestimating what Microsoft is doing with search technology, says Bill Gates.

The head of the software giant told the BBC that its ambition is to be bigger than Google in search.

He said that competition had ultimately been good for web users because it had pushed search technology. This meant search would be “far better” in a year.

The next decade looks even better, he said, with a lot more advances in software technology ahead.

“The beauty of software is that we are always making breakthroughs. We will have more in the next 10 years than we have had on the last 30,” he said in an exclusive BBC interview.

Mr Gates said he saw Microsoft’s strengths lying in search, but also in its software that provides the glue to make different devices talk to each other so that people can have more power over their content.

“We are in the best position we have ever been in,” he said.

But he stressed that Google was not the only threat it faced in the long term.

It had competition in every arena, from the likes of Nokia, Sony and Apple, but that was something with which Microsoft had become accustomed.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft aims to trounce Google

The interview is a good insight to how Microsoft, and Bill Gates, thinks. Personally, I think Bill is still dreaming. Primarily because they still keep trying to be everything to everyone. In doing so they take away choice and become the “Jack of all trades” while still remaining “Master of None”. ;-)

My biggest issue with the plan thats being described is that a lot of what Microsoft is doing, especially with things that are calling “Web 2.0″ type services, will require that it be run on top of a Microsoft platform. Even their rumored hosting services will require that the end user be running Internet Explorer. That means you’ll still need to run a version of Windows.

For me, that is restrictive. I don’t run Windows personally any longer. I cannot afford to. Even after paying for the license, the cost of maintaining it, continually keeping it fresh and avoiding spyware, virus infections and worms just got to being too much. Nor do I have a Windows CE device to use it all on. My last PocketPC was two old iPaqs that I sold to Nick and Kylea before they first moved to Aussie. I sold them because they were of no use to me. I couldn’t do anything with them unless I ran Windows on my PC.

IF (and that is a really big IF) Microsoft ever decided to make their services available in the same way that companies like Yahoo! and Google do (truly platform independent) then I might consider using Microsoft MSN services. But as long as I’m required to use Internet Explorer (and Windows) to get the full benefits, Microsoft has ruled themselves out of my considerations.

Read the article itself. The video bite is only 2 minutes long and doesn’t cover all thats described in the article.