(CNN) -- When Bill Gates testified via videotape in Microsoft's antitrust trial in 1998, he was combative and defensive, as if he couldn't believe how stupid the entire procedure was. He didn't expect the tape to be shown in court. It was, and it was a disaster. Public opinion turned -- instead of a billionaire genius who had built Microsoft into the most valuable tech company in the world, he was a condescending monopolist who didn't have time for the legal system. Amazingly, Gates didn't see it coming. As Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen relates in his recent autobiography, the anti-Microsoft sentiment "cut Bill to the core." Gates told the media that government attorney David Boies was "really out to destroy Microsoft."
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Bill Gates' testimony in antitrust trial turned public opinion against him, Matt Rosoff says
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Rosoff says Larry Page of Google is close to being in a similar situation
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Page is stretching company from online video to social networking to mobile phones, he says
Like Gates, he is hugely ambitious -- he once suggested that Google hire a million engineers and told early investors that he saw @placeholder as a $100 billion company.
For Google's sake, here's hoping he handles it with more grace than @placeholder.