As I am not a contractor or affiliated with MSR in any way, I can back you up. In my field MSR is light years ahead of Google when it comes to research impact. Google has been gaining a stronger presence and they are generally seen as more innovative. But for those of my colleagues that want an industry research job, MSR and Google are both very attractive, the old stable one and the new kid in town.

(Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft Research Asia) On the other hand, what Google does get around to publishing is often very strong. Outside of universities, and since IBM lost/dropped/??? most of its researchers, we are the only two big companies left that have strong ties to research.

ok ,mea culpa. the research part of microsoft is pretty decent.. even i have already stop by and read some of those good papers.. :)

but the point i was made was about open culture.. and since google publish much more(and heavy weight) open source software than microsoft i tend to think they are ahead in the curve at least in that matter..

but with the current trends of online education model our academic institutions are in threat, at least the classic model we used to know.. so this make even more dangerous if corporations are the only safe place to big minds to continue their work..

so while companies are getting more open.. in this hypothetical future.. i think this is not enough.

Companies by their own standards dont have to think about the society greater good. they can, but they dont have to.. contrary to what academia and republics were created for