Microsoft Is Quietly Building the Agentic Web — and It's Not the Same Game Google Is Playing

Google and Microsoft are both building infrastructure for AI agents — but they're not playing the same game.

Google's A2A protocol is focused on agent coordination inside a company's digital ecosystem. Think: a Google Calendar agent talking to Gmail, or a Salesforce bot triggering Docs automation. It's an internal orchestration layer, deeply embedded in the workspace and app ecosystem. A2A is Google's play for owning enterprise agent infrastructure — the operating system of bots inside the firewall.

Microsoft, meanwhile, is building something very different with NLWeb.

NLWeb isn't about coordinating bots inside a company. It's about enabling agents — any agents — to query and interact with websites and services across companies and on behalf of users. It's about consumer-to-business and business-to-business communication through AI.

NLWeb: A Protocol, Not a Product

NLWeb defines how websites can expose their content and functionality to AI agents through:

• A simple, discoverable /.well-known/agent.json file (like robots.txt, but for agents)
• REST APIs that return structured JSON, ideally using schema.org types
• Optional vector backends that allow for semantic, embedding-based querying

There's no plugin approval process. No vendor lock-in. It's just structured, open, and readable by any agent with access to an LLM.

And that's the point: NLWeb is built to be interoperable by default — not just with Microsoft agents, but with any agent operating in the open web.

This is how agents will eventually book your hotel, query your inventory, or search your knowledge base — directly, semantically, and without scraping.

Different Gameboards: Google's A2A vs. Microsoft's NLWeb

Google is trying to own the bots inside the company.

Microsoft is trying to define how bots talk to everything outside.

Is Microsoft Trying to Compete with Google on Search?

Maybe — but not the way you'd expect.

With NLWeb, Microsoft isn't building a search engine like Google. They're building a semantic layer agents can use to bypass traditional keyword search entirely.

The idea is: agents don't need ten blue links. They want structured answers, filtered content, and actionable results.

NLWeb makes that possible. Instead of scraping hotel websites, an agent can just query their NLWeb endpoints and get:

{
  "@type": "Hotel",
  "name": "Seaside Inn",
  "price": 130,
  "amenities": ["WiFi", "Gym", "Pet Friendly"]
}

This isn't "search" in the traditional sense — it's semantic interaction with the live web.

If Microsoft can get enough websites to expose content via NLWeb, they could disintermediate traditional search — or at least make Bing+Copilot more useful than it otherwise would be.

But is this a smart move?

Should Microsoft Try to Replace Search?

Maybe. But only if they don't fall into the same trap.

Google's advantage in search isn't just data — it's distribution and user habit. Microsoft would need:

• A critical mass of sites using NLWeb
• A reliable discovery model (federated registries or agent crawlers)
• Agent interfaces (like Copilot) that guide users toward this new interaction model

It's not impossible. But it's hard.

Where NLWeb is smart is as a data layer for agents, not as a direct consumer-facing search replacement. It's a protocol that makes the web programmatically understandable — not a new Google.

If Microsoft stays focused on making NLWeb the default way agents communicate with websites, they don't need to beat Google at search. They just need to make search less necessary.

The Business Play

NLWeb itself is open. But it drives usage of everything Microsoft actually charges for:

• Azure AI Search (vector backends)
• Azure-hosted OpenAI models
• Azure Functions or App Services for endpoints
• Microsoft Copilot integrations for enterprise

It also positions Microsoft as the trusted infrastructure provider for companies trying to become "AI-ready."

Want agents to interact with your website? Expose it via NLWeb.

Want to do that quickly? Use Microsoft's infrastructure.

It's the same move they made with .NET, Azure, and Teams — but this time it's for the agentic web.

Final Thought

Google is building the AI intranet. Microsoft is building the AI internet.

A2A is about optimizing bots within a closed corporate system. NLWeb is about creating a neutral, open interface layer where any agent — from any company — can interact with any service that supports the protocol.

In a world of autonomous agents, that's the more ambitious bet.

And if Microsoft pulls it off, they won't just be part of the next generation of the web — they'll quietly define its structure.