2009 – The Year Of Cloud Computing, Real-Time Search And Web-Based OS (GOOG, MSFT, YHOO)

The MIT Technology Review noted that the year 2009 would be remembered for cloud computing, real-time search and the emergence of Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) web-based operating system.

Columnist Erica Naone wrote that Google had some serious competition as Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) launched Bing and entered into a technology sharing agreement with Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO). Google was forced to explore more sophisticated approaches for presenting meaningful information from online databases as physicist Stephen Wolfram developed a “computational knowledge engine”.

Erica rates Twitter as the year’s hottest web company and noted that Internet experts have developed new protocols for collecting bits of related information, irrespective of where they appear.