[mayanksinghal]

I am not so sure about that. MS has had significant contributions in research that is not directly relevant to Microsoft's current revenue streams - but I haven't heard if Gates was directly involved in any of them. Brin, on the other hand, appears to be spearheading that stream of research and development.

[gxs]

Brin and Page have compared themselves to gates and have mentioned they'd like to follow his example as far as philanthropy goes.