It wasn’t Google Maps that set ‘em off… or Google Desktop. Even GMail caused barely a ripple.

But when folks started referring to Google as the borg, Microsofties went ballistic. The real borg swung into action.

All the horde needed was something… anything… to assimilate. The unfortunate something targeted was the consumer/small biz end of the security industry. Specifically, antivirus, antispyware and firewall soft-services, as well as email services.

In aiming for the little guys at $15 per system per year, MSN Windows OneCare destroys income streams for unattractive and apparently expendable partners like McAfee, Symantec and ZoneLabs. It undermines freeware alternatives like Ad-Aware, AVG and AVAST!, too, as none yet offer a full-and-free antispyware + antivirus + firewall solution.

On the email side, Hotmail Windows Live Custom Domains offers small shops with 40 or fewer email accounts free messsaging… which sounds great as long as they’re too dumb to realize it’s really the infamous Hotmail lurking beneath a shiny new name.

This gives the borg the ability to record, study and repackage the private pathologies of a group that was largely abandoned as Microsoft Exchange morphed into Jabba the Hutt. Small biz has steadily migrated from Microsoft email to smaller, easier and more manageable software and services.

Won’t the loss of 40-user groups eviscerate a core business for thousands of ISPs? Sure. But the borg figures its needs are more important. And most of those traitors are running sendmail, postfix, or qmail on BSD or Linux anyway.

The real beauty in the MSN Windows OneCare Hotmail Windows Live Custom Domains attack lies in its ability to wring cash from an unreachable corner of computing.

Small shops have been notoriously slow to switch up to newer operating systems. To use OneCare, they must have XP or Vista. Ka-ching!

Every year thereafter, they’ll have to pony up $15 per system. Ka-ching!

And the next time the borg wants them to upgrade, it won’t be asking. Ka-ching!

Brilliant!

Vendors for enterprise-level email, antivirus, antispyware and firewall solutions should be paying close attention. They’re next.

As for end-users… enjoy the relatively high-quality-on-the-cheap ride while you can. Remember what happened after Internet Explorer killed Netscape?

Once IE owned the market, most of the browser developers were shipped out and IE browser innovation died.

Same thing will happen to email, antivirus, antispyware and firewall innovation if Microsoft pulls this one off.

If they don’t… Goog’s the borg.

Email Battles Backgrounder: