Facebook (and Microsoft) vs. Google

When a young tech company with outsized ambitions goes public, somewhere an older tech company dies a little on the inside.

So it was eight years ago with Microsoft, then the biggest, baddest technology company in the world, when Google sold shares to the public. The I.P.O. filled Google’s gas tanks, fueling a series of business battles in the years to come with Microsoft (search, applications, mobile), many of which have not gone in Microsoft’s favor.

As Facebook inches toward an I.P.O., it’s Google’s turn to feel the sting of a younger competitor passing a key milestone that will fill its war chest and, if history repeats itself, lead to a new wave of battles over the Internet. Google has already moved forcefully into Facebook’s home turf of social networking with Google Plus.