As with so many aspects of the Internet, Microsoft had misjudged the shape of things to come. Microsoft tried to refashion itself as a state-of-the art media company, but its efforts were clunky and expensive. It made the mistake of actually producing editorial content. Its successors—Facebook, Google, Apple—didn’t repeat that error. They surpassed Microsoft by adapting a revolutionary approach: the domination of media without hiring writers and editors, without owning much of anything.
