In shutting down its plan to scan every book in the entire world and make them available via Live Search Books and Live Search Academic projects Microsoft, rather unfortunately, is making mistakes akin to those committed by U.S. automakers. “Instead Microsoft should be doing at least one of two things,” Ephraim Schwartz writes in Microsoft, Home Depot pull a GM with failed book-scanning effort. “Number one in my book would be trying to gain an understanding of why Google search is so popular.” As the headline suggests, Schwartz does not limit his critical eye to Microsoft. Rather, he goes on to point out that Home Depot used the slowdown in the housing market as an excuse for not meeting quarterly forecasts instead of planning for the downturn and using its data to drive business. Both cases point to a disconnect between what sales and marketing knows and what IT knows. “To me, it seems that the American business has lost its competitive edge.” Technology Industry