If you think that’s an overstatement, then read the 15 ways entrepreneurs are saving the world below. Prepare to be awed and inspired.

#1 Entrepreneurs Create New Jobs

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), 50 million jobs have disappeared worldwide since the financial crisis of 2008. But as governments and corporations cut jobs in the name of austerity, entrepreneurs are creating new jobs.

At the very least, each entrepreneur creates one new job. But very successful entrepreneurs, like Larry Page and Steve Jobs, have helped create tens of thousands of new jobs. Today, Google employs about 33,000 people and Apple employs about 60,000.

#2 Entrepreneurs Light Up the Darkness

More than one out of every four people worldwide lack reliable access to electricity.

But Jessica O. Matthews and Julia Silverman are changing that. Their mission started at Harvard University in 2008, when they helped to invent the Soccket – a soccer ball that absorbs energy when it’s played with and then can be used as a portable power source.

It’s an ingenious invention. But it needed a company to produce and distribute it. That’s why Matthews and Silverman founded Uncharted Play in May of 2011. With every Soccket they distribute, there’s another play-powered, eco-friendly light in the world.

#3 Entrepreneurs Solve New Problems

Businesses thrive because they’re able to solve people’s problems, but old businesses are often slow to adapt to emerging problems.

That’s where entrepreneurs come in. Startups are designed from the ground up to solve today’s problems.

Here’s an example. In the last few decades we’ve seen a huge rise in digital waste. Personal computers are polluting the environment in landfills even though they contain valuable material.

Greenback Laptops is one company tackling the problem. People send Greenback their old laptops and then the company refurbishes the computers and sells them at a profit. The best part is that Greenback donates 50% of proceeds to schools and educational foundations.

#4 Entrepreneurs Provide Free Information

In 1996, Jimmy Wales co-founded Bomis, an online web portal featuring male-oriented content. In 2000, Wales leveraged the success of Bomis to launch a free online encyclopedia called Nupedia. But the volunteer-driven site was slow to produce content (only 12 articles written in its first year).

Wales and the Nupedia team brainstormed a faster way to generate content: creating a wiki encyclopedia. A user-curated encyclopedia? The idea was just so crazy, it might work.

Since its inception in 2001, Wikipedia has amassed 22 million articles in 285 languages thanks to a community of about 100,000 active contributors.

The resulting surge in free information has transformed the world and given unprecedented opportunity to billions of people without access to libraries and universities. As Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler point out in their book ‘Abundance’, if a man is, “on a smartphone with Google, he has access to more information than the President [of the United States] did just 15 years ago.”

#5 Entrepreneurs Help Topple Totalitarianism

The Arab Spring is a wave of revolutionary demonstrations and protests in the Arab world that started in December 2010 in Tunisia. To date, this largely peaceful movement has ousted authoritarian dictators in Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and Tunisia.

It may not have been possible if Jack Dorsey hadn’t created Twitter in 2006. Protestors used Twitter to organize and provide real-time updates during demonstrations.

When Dorsey conceived of a social media site that only let you post 140 characters at a time, I doubt he saw it as a way of fighting political oppression. But by giving people a powerful way to communicate and connect with one another, he created a tool that has done just that.

#6 Entrepreneurs Push Science to New Frontiers

Last week on May 22^nd, the International Space Station received supplies from an American shuttle – but for the first time in history, it wasn’t a NASA shuttle.

The unmanned shuttle belongs to SpaceX, a space transport company founded in 2002 by PayPal entrepreneur Elon Musk. In a time when government debt has led to reduced spending in research and development, entrepreneurs like Musk are footing the bill and creating companies that create scientific breakthroughs.

Musk isn’t alone. Larry Page joined him in financing Tesla Motors, a company dedicated to mass producing fully electric cars at an affordable price. And while SpaceX is dedicated to transport of cargo, Richard Branson is heading up sub-orbital spaceflights to “space tourists” with Virgin Galactic.

#7 Entrepreneurs Offer Affordable Loans to Small Businesses

While volunteering to help small businesses in East Africa, Jessica Jackley began interviewing African entrepreneurs about their challenges. One of the problems was a lack of capital. But while businesses back in the United States were looking for millions of dollars in start-up capital, these businesses in East Africa needed only hundreds.

Jackley saw an opportunity to make a difference. In October 2005, she founded Kiva Microloans with Matt Flannery. Kiva connects entrepreneurs all over the world with people interested in making microloans to help their small businesses.

Though the average loan is only $392.13, Kiva has distributed over $300 million in loans in the last seven years. Since Kiva’s loans are repaid an amazing 98.94% of the time, most people decide to reinvest their money once it’s paid back. This illustrates why loaning money can be many times more powerful than giving it away.

Kiva is also helping win the fight on gender equality. About 80% of Kiva’s loans go to women – many of whom live in patriarchal societies which limit the business opportunities of women.

#8 Entrepreneurs Bring People Together

Human beings are pack animals. We instinctually crave to be with one another, to understand one another and be understood. But circumstances often pull us apart.

Luckily, there’s a cadre of entrepreneurs searching for new ways to make us feel close to one another even when we’re separated by oceans.

Leading the charge is Skype, an internet phone created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis in 2003. Not only is Skype free to use, its video and file-sharing capabilities make it a much more potent communicative tool than a traditional phone.

Every day, Skype lets grandmothers see their newborn grandchildren, business partners meet from offices in other cities, and military wives speak to their husbands while they’re abroad. In total, Skype has brought togetherness and happiness to over 663 million registered users (a figure that inspired Microsoft to acquire Skype for a whopping $8.5 billion in 2011).

#9 Entrepreneurs Start Charities and Foundations

When your companies have made you a billionaire several times over, what’s next?

For many of today’s most successful entrepreneurs, the answer is to create a charity or non-profit. It’s a way to apply their organizational experience to solving the world’s biggest problems – instead of just lining their pocketbooks further.

The best example may be Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft. Bill stopped selling software full-time in 2006 so he could focus on promoting global development and health as the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

#10 Entrepreneurs Help the Artist Community

There’s a reason why the “starving artist” is a stereotype. For years, artists have had to live on scraps – often while business people get rich off of their work.

Shawn Carter (aka Jay-Z) grew up watching record companies sign up-and-coming rappers only to exploit them and leave them destitute. So in 1995 he started his own record company, Roc-a-Fella. Four years later he co-founded Rocawear, an apparel company that he sold for a whopping $204 million in 2007.

Carter is part of the growing cadre of artist-entrepreneurs who are able to use their business savvy to put money in the pockets of artists. The more entrepreneurs out there helping the art community, the more it will thrive.

#11 Entrepreneurs Encourage Local Commerce

In the last century, commerce has become increasingly international. Improved transportation technologies and low trade barriers mean that products are often sold on the other side of the world from where they’re produced.

But shipping products thousands of miles is energy inefficient. There’s also a disconcerting homogeneity to walking into a Walmart or McDonald’s anywhere in the world and being met with almost the exact same experience at every location.

Entrepreneurship, however, lends itself to local commerce and culture. If you create your own product, it makes sense to sell it at local stores. If your business offers a service, it will likely be more cost-effective to provide it to people who live in your area.

This means more local culture and less fuel used in shipping.

#12 Entrepreneurs Fund Big Ideas

Kickstarter is a crowd funding website for creative projects launched in 2008.

By July 2011, Kickstarter had already been used to successfully fund over 10,000 projects in the amount of about $60,000,000. In April 2012, The Pebble E-Paper Watch became the most highly funded project on Kickstarter when it raised over $10 million through the pledges of almost 70,000 people.

But the most amazing thing about The Pebble E-Paper Watch project is that it failed to get funding from traditional startup investors. Without Kickstarter, it wouldn’t exist. With Kickstarter, it’s thriving.

While Kickstarter is just for creative projects, other companies are following its lead to support a wider range of ideas. CommunityFunded launched earlier this year and can be used to crowd-source any type of idea, be it a creative project, a non-profit organization, or a business concept.

#13 Entrepreneurs Work towards a Global Water Solution

Almost 1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water, 2.5 billion live without water for sanitation, and poor water quality is the second leading cause of infant mortality in the world.

Roundabout Outdoor is a private startup making a difference. They’re the creators of the PlayPump Water System, a water pump that’s powered by the play of children at school and in rural areas. Today, there are over 1800 PlayPump systems in sub-Saharan Africa and they provide clean drinking water to more than one million people.

Another example is ONE DROP, a non-profit dedicated to “supporting access to water and raising individual and community awareness.” It’s an initiative started by Guy Laliberté, who made his fortune as the founder of Cirque du Soleil. ONE DROP has given roughly 25,000 people access to water all across the globe.

#14 Entrepreneurs Make People Happier

When I think about making the world a better place, I think about big-picture stuff like non-profit organizations and global movements.

But one of the best ways to make the world better is simply to be the best version of you. If you’re happily and actively pursuing your best life, everybody around you feels it. By chasing your dreams, you’re implicitly giving your friends and family permission to chase theirs.

Since entrepreneurs are striving every day to realize their vision and make a positive impact on the world, they’re usually the type of person who infects everyone around them with energy, passion, and happiness.

#15 Entrepreneurs Provide Free Education

In the three years since Michael Dunlop founded Income Diary in 2009, over 300 articles have been published on the site. Each one was written to help educate visitors on how to make money online and each one is available for no cost.

As of February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence. While some of these were founded by people who just want to express themselves, millions of others are like Income Diary: regularly updated resources offering a free, in-depth education.

These types of blogs are usually founded by entrepreneurs who are leveraging their free content to earn money through product sales, advertisements, or donations. Thanks to these blogging entrepreneurs, I’ve become a better graphic designer, a better web developer, a better writer, a better musician, and a better video editor.

It’s amazing to think that generations to come will have access to the wealth of free education provided by these entrepreneurs – and that this virtual classroom is growing in size and quality every day.

Ready to Save the World?

I hope these stories have inspired you to think about the way that you and your business can make a positive impact on the planet. But if you’re wondering, “What’s in it for me?” then I recommend you consider the ways that entrepreneurs benefit from giving back.

I would also love to hear any ways entrepreneurs are saving the world that I forgot, so please speak up in the comment section below.

The post 15 Ways Entrepreneurs are Saving the World appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

Are you completely successful?

By the time you get to the bottom of this page, you may be.

Success is all about having the right mindset. That’s why I’ve compiled 50 of the most powerful perspectives on success from some of history’s most successful people. Their definitions, quotations, formulas, misconceptions, and principles paint a clear picture of the mindset of a success.

We have two more awesome posts on quotes, 15 Best Quotes From 15 Of The Great Entrepreneurs and Top 30 Quotes To Inspire Entrepreneurs.

Top 10 Definitions of Success

#1 Winston Churchill:

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

#2 Deepak Chopra:

“Success in life could be defined as the continued expansion of happiness and the progressive realization of worthy goals.”

#3 Jim Rohn:

“Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”

#4 Anita Roddick:

“I want to define success by redefining it. For me it isn’t that solely mythical definition – glamour, allure, power of wealth, and the privilege from care. Any definition of success should be personal because it’s so transitory. It’s about shaping my own destiny.”

#5 Richard Branson:

“It is the satisfaction of doing it for yourself and motivating others to work with you in bringing it about. It is about the fun, innovation, creativity with the rewards being far greater than purely financial.”

15 Lessons from Richard Branson

#6 Orison Swett Marden:

“When a man feels throbbing within him the power to do what he undertakes as well as it can possibly be done, this is happiness, this is success.”

#7 Zig Ziglar:

“Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.”

Here are 11 Life-Changing Business Lessons from Zig Ziglar.

#8 George Sheehan:

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.”

#9 Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“Success:  To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.  This is to have succeeded!”

#10 Wilfred Peterson:

“Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire to achieve.”

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Top 10 Quotes on Success

#1 Thomas Edison:

“Success is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

#2 Dorothea Brande:

“Act as though it is impossible to fail.”

#3 Woody Allen:

“Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.”

#4 Mark Victor Hansen:

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

#5 Yoda:

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

#6 Taryn Rose:

“Fear regret more than failure.”

#7 Edward Simmons:

“The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing a thing exactly right.”

#8 Abraham Lincoln:

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.”

#9 George Bernard Shaw:

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

#10 Anonymous:

“God gave us two ends: one to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one you use. Heads you win; tails, you lose.”

Top 10 Formulas for Success

#1 Albert Einstein:

“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.”

#2 Thomas J. Watson:

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.”

#3 Stanley Tang:

“Success comes down to hard work plus passion, over time.”

#4 Swami Vivekananda:

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life: think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”

#5 Mark Twain:

“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”

#6 Napoleon Hill

“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.”

#7 James Allen:

“For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?”

#8 Unknown:

“Success = an optimist in thought + a pessimist in action.”

#9 Anonymous:

“An Unfailing Success Plan: At each day’s end write down the six most important things to do tomorrow; number them in order of importance, and then do them.”

#10 Arnold H. Glasgow:

“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.”

Top 10 Misconceptions about Success

#1 Success is Complicated

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

Steve Jobs

You can make success as complicated as you want, but it doesn’t have to be that way. As Jobs says, making success simple isn’t necessarily easy, but it is very powerful.

Take Google for example: their home page is one of the simplest on the web and that simplicity has allowed it to become the most popular site in the world.

#2 Success is a Destination

It’s tempting to think about success as some far-off point where you’ve accomplished everything we’ve ever wanted: “I’ll be successful when I have my dream job, make a million dollars a year, and spend all my time traveling the world with my soul mate.”

This type of thinking is flawed because the accomplishment of worthy goals only leads to the possibility of accomplishing more worthy goals. A successful person doesn’t stop once they achieve something; they’re inspired to achieve something even greater. Success is an ongoing path. As Ben Sweetland said, “Success is a journey, not a destination.”

#3 Success is the Key to Happiness

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.”

Herman Cain

If you’re unhappy, don’t blame it on a lack of success. Happiness is all about perspective. If you’ve got a cheerful outlook, it doesn’t matter if you’re a success or failure.

#4 Failure is an Indicator that You Won’t Succeed

“The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is that you’ll fail ten times for every success.”

Adam Horwitz

Everybody fails. In fact, successful people fail more than failures because they take bigger chances. If you want proof, then check out the four biggest mistakes from the world’s four biggest entrepreneurs.

Failures are necessary on the path of success. Just learn from them and move on.

#5 Success Comes at the Expense of Others

Some people think that the only way you can move up in business is by stepping on people to get there.

The truth is actually the opposite: a business is successful because it provides value for people. As I’ve written about before, the more you give, the more you get.

#6 Moderate Success is Easier to Get than “Only in Your Wildest Dreams” Success

“Ninety-nine percent of people believe they can’t do great things, so they aim for mediocrity.”

Tim Ferriss

Many of us are taught from an early age to have practical goals. We shouldn’t try to be a rock star, supermodel, or astronaut because the chances of success are so slim.

But it’s time to challenge those self-imposed restraints. As Ben Nemtin, from “The Buried Life”, pointed out: “The level of competition is highest for realistic goals because most people don’t set high enough goals for themselves.”

Don’t be afraid to go for your wildest dream. It may take more effort, but you’ll also be more energized.

#7 You Need to Wait Until the Time is Right

“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.”

Samuel Johnson

There’s no such thing as the “perfect time” to act. There will always be a problem. But successful people don’t let that deter them.

#8 Success has to be Traditional

“The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you’re playing by somebody else’s rules, while quietly playing by your own.”

Michael Konda

Don’t get caught up with how other people define success. Traditional success includes a six-figure income, a happy family, and a house with a white picket fence. But your success doesn’t have to include any of these things.

#9 Success is Easy

“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.”

David Bly

When people become very successful very quickly it almost looks like it just fell into their lap. But it only looks easy to us because we can’t see the whole picture. Success is earned. As the old saying goes, “The only place you’ll find success before work is in the dictionary.”

#10 Success = Money

“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.”

Henry Ford

This is a tired point, but it’s true: money is not that important. Personally, I would rather make a modest living doing something that matters than get rich trading stocks on Wall Street.

Steve Jobs was one of the richest people in the world, but he once said “being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

Top 10 Principles of Success

#1 Success Starts Within

Success comes from the way you act. The way you act comes from the way you think and feel. Therefore, to become more successful, you must first change something within yourself.

#2 Success is a Habit

“Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.”

Aristotle

The little things that you do every day build on top of one another. Make a little progress towards your goals every day.

#3 Success is Only Obtainable in the Now

“The present moment is the only moment available to us and it is the door to all moments.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

We can’t experience the past or the future. So the only time a person is truly able to experience success is when they’re appreciating success in the present moment. Take time to enjoy the success of the present or you’ll never know the true meaning of the word.

There’s another reason why the present is so important, as Mahatma Gandhi points out: “The future depends on what we do in the present.”

#4 Success is in Motion

“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”

Steve Jobs

Have a sip of success and it’s easy to get intoxicated. When you get so pleased with your success that all you want to do is reflect on it fondly, you’re guaranteeing that your success will be short-lived.

The only way to have permanent success is to always be moving forward. This anonymous quotation says it better than I can: “A successful man continues to look for work after he has found a job.”

#5 Success Requires Faith

“Leap and the net will appear.”

Zen saying

Pursuing success is challenging and risky, but your chances increase greatly when you simply believe you will succeed.

#6 Success Means Helping Others

“It’s not that successful people are givers; it is that givers are successful people.”

Patti Thor

While it’s enjoyable to help yourself, there’s nothing more satisfying than helping others. Any true definition of success involves giving back as much as you get.

#7 Success is a Choice

Your life is in your hands. So if you don’t like your situation, change it.

Each of us has the resources and the opportunity to create a better life. But we each must make the decision to do this. As an old Swedish proverb says, “God gives every bird a worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.”

#8 Perseverance is Required

Colonel Harlan Sanders made 1008 sales call before a restaurant agreed to buy his recipe for fried chicken. If Sanders hadn’t persisted through over 1000 rejections, then KFC (a restaurant franchise with that earns about a half-billion dollars in revenue per year) wouldn’t exist.

Success is a long-term game. Be ready for the long haul.

#9 Visualization is Key

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up some place else.”

Yogi Berra

When teaching my class to shoot basketball, our gym teacher told us to imagine the basketball going through the hoop. Surprisingly, the trick worked: visualizing a successful shot actually helped us achieve it.

It’s not magic. Visualization makes our goals more real and reminds us of the beauty of our dreams.

#10 Success Starts Today

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

No matter what your situation is, you can become a successful person today. You may not be able to reap the rewards yet, but you can start planting the seeds.

Read more: ‘21 Life Lessons From Steve Jobs’

The post 50 Great Thoughts on Success appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

I bet you’ve made some pretty big mistakes. But have you ever made a billion-dollar mistake?

If not, then rest easy: the world’s smartest and most successful entrepreneurs have made mistakes far greater than yours. One even made a decision that cost him $45 billion bucks.

Learn from their mistakes today so that you don’t repeat them tomorrow.

#1 Steve Jobs Giving Up Control of Apple

Today, we all know that Steve Jobs was one of the greatest CEO’s of all time. Between 1997 and 2011, Steve led Apple to soaring profits with unparalleled charisma, leadership, and eye for innovation. But in the beginning, even Steve didn’t know that he was destined to be CEO of the company that he founded.

That doubt led Jobs to give up executive control of Apple Inc. in 1977 – a decision that would result in Jobs being fired by the company he founded.

Slipping out of his Grasp

Apple was a partnership owned entirely by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak until Jobs lured Mike Markkula out of retirement in 1977. Markkula was a seasoned entrepreneur and angel investor who provided Apple with much needed capital and business expertise.

It was the beginning of Jobs losing control of his own company. By the time Markkula stepped down as CEO in 1983, Jobs wanted control back. He was ready to be CEO. The only problem was that it was no longer Steve’s decision – and the board at Apple Inc. wasn’t too keen on hiring a 28-year-old to run the fast-growing company.

Powerless, Jobs agreed to recruit John Sculley, who was currently the head of Pepsi-Cola. Sculley took the job, but a power struggle between the two strong-willed men ensued.

When the conflict reached a breaking point, Markkula sided with Sculley. Steve Jobs was fired from Apple Inc. in 1985. Sculley had this to say:

Without Steve’s unique vision, Apple soon began to falter. A string of failures in the early 90’s opened the door wide for the competition, specifically Bill Gates and Microsoft.

Lesson Learned:

Steve Jobs wasn’t the most experienced choice for CEO of Apple, but he loved and understood his company better than anyone on the planet.

If you want your startup company to grow, you have to give up some control. But be careful about how much control you give and who you give it to. You don’t want to be in Jobs position, betrayed by the very person who you put in power.

Note: If you want more on what Jobs has done right, check out this article I wrote called 21 Life Lessons from Steve Jobs.

Honorable Mention: Selling stock in Apple

When Apple went public in 1980, Steve Jobs was awarded 7.5 million in Apple shares. When he was fired from Apple, Jobs sold all but one share. (He would have sold all of his shares, but he didn’t want to stop receiving the company’s annual report.)

As of April 2012, with Apple stock trading for over $600, those 7.5 million shares would be worth over $45 billion dollars. That alone is almost as much as the April 2012 worth of the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim ($49 billion).

#2 Bill Gates Ignoring Search Engines

Gates has proved himself a visionary by founding a computer software company in 1975 (Microsoft), pioneering a graphical user interface in 1985 (Windows 1.0), and by introducing millions of Americans to the Internet in 1995 (Windows 95 came bundled with Internet Explorer).

But by 2005, it was clear that Bill had failed to predict a billion-dollar opportunity: the search engine.

Walking Past a Gold Mine

Microsoft introduced MSN Search in 1998, the same year that Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google. Google was fast, innovative, and good at delivering relevant results. MSN Search was none-of-the-above.

Microsoft hadn’t even bothered to develop a search engine of their own. They used results from Inktomi, an existing search engine. Search simply wasn’t a priority. Microsoft was more focused on defeating Netscape Navigator in a battle of the browsers.

Still Searching for Results

By 2002, it was painfully obvious to Gates that search had been a big missed opportunity. Google had earned $348 million in revenue that year. A year later, in 2003, Google almost tripled its revenue to $962 million. Finally, Microsoft started developing a search engine.

The company launched Windows Live Search in 2006 but it failed to compete with Google. In 2009, Microsoft rebranded once again and introduced Bing. Billed as the first “decision engine”, Bing has taken a small bite out of the search mar