The New York Times reports today that Microsoft has cast aside its broken heart and bonbons and is now in cahoots with investor Carl Icahn, who has waged a proxy fight against Yahoo for flubbing the Microsoft deal. Microsoft, in turn, is reinstating its interest in buying Yahoo, or at least its search business, under the condition that the board is unseated. Together, Microsoft and Icahn have hopes of transforming the Yahoo board to make an acquisition more attractive to everyone (everyone except Google).
The continued fight and the refusal to get over it (despite evidence that they should) shows that Microsoft is convinced that beating Google is the only road to online success. Microsoft exec Steve Ballmer clearly intends to make good on his early promise to "catch Google" -- but we're not so sure.
In a poll last week, we asked our readers what the future of Microsoft will look like now that Bill Gates has retired from his full-time position. Despite Microsoft's hopes of emerging as a dominant Internet company, our readers seem to think otherwise:
While 40 percent of our readers think Microsoft will see continued success in the field where it's now at play, only 22 percent believe it will achieve its heart's desire as a dominant Internet company. The poll was administered last week, when the deal still appeared to be dead in the water, and it's unclear if our readers would vote differently now. But perhaps the results are less about Microsoft's inability to buy search space and more about its lack of online innovation.
Microsoft isn't the only one at fault, however. The three major companies in play right now have consistently, over the past few months, demonstrated desperation rather than innovation, prioritizing acquisitions over new ideas. At this point, Microsoft should focus its attention on bettering areas where it excels and getting involved with cloud computing; Google should embody "Don't Be Evil" for once and leave some wiggle room for other players; and Yahoo should cut the damsel-in-distress act and do something worthwhile, independently.
Instead, however, in several selfish efforts to do one another in, all three companies have let their users down and shown little desire to excel at anything but ad peddling.
Maybe bringing in Carl Icahn isn't such a bad idea after all.
The interesting ( and obviously open) question is How can Yahoo manage to live on its own.
It seems to be losing in the search engine industry
But still there exist some avenues for Yahoo
1) Yahoo Mail is still the most widely used email service ( I heard it from a yahoo executive but I think it is true because of leagacy of Yahoo) and we all know that Microsoft and Google's Email services have issues or limitations. I mentioned in another post that there is a need of advanced email platform that can give me facilities like notification when the other person sees the mail ( as we have it in MS outlook ) , ability to create advanced filters. I think there is room in the domain but how profitable this thing is going to be for Yahoo is another question
Yahoo did a good acquisition in the form of Zimbra but it needs to find ways of Monetizing Zimbra based services. Integration of yahoo mail with other email clients can also be a good thing
2) Flickr is a very good tool for photo sharing .But not a very prolific thing in terms of revenue
3) Yahoo one connect also had some innovative services
I think Yahoo will need to redesign its scheme for the future ( Companies like Apple have successfuly done it). It needs to look more into the things being ignored by the others. Google Docs suite lacks some advanced features like time sheets, gantt charts, so partnership with Zoho may be a good idea.
Nice article and nice editor :-). I've just joined today from a Google ad saying blog and be blogged about. I just want to find out where I can post my blog. It's about my web 2.0 open web portal for creating websites on the browser called iFlaker (www.iflaker.com).
Someone like AOL? there are rumors that News Corp might be trying to send the dying-AOL (dead?) to Yahoo for some shares in the new merger.
But I don't think they'll go anywhere with this - maybe just make it more attractive for Microsoft. I don't see Yahoo making it alone, not with the brain drain they are experiencing.
Hopefully you're right. It doesn't look like Microsoft is willing to have it any other way. At this point I would love to see Yahoo stay independent or team up with a different company that will allow its creative assets to thrive.
I still predict MS will get what they want out of Yahoo, and that Google has it work cut out for it.
Today at the MS World Wide Partners conference MS annouced its "Software as a Service" intiative with strong partner participation. Encorporation of such a channel will not be easy for Google. Google understand only a B2C- (Really G2C) business model; getting partners will not be easy. MS has 250,000 partner firms, who bill 5X the MS revenue for Software. They are local, virtical and focused. They, unlike Google, buy lunch for the busines of the world.
And Android? Seems to be this intiaitve is blocked by iPhone Version 2.
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Hey, IE Radio lovers: We're live right now with Jeff Jonas, chief scientist at IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM). You won't want to miss this, so hurry up and head on over!
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Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s recent unveiling of its "magical" iPad may have fanboys counting the days until March, but if a recent poll on Internet Evolution is any indication, not everyone is buying into the hype.
We do a lot of grousing here on Internet Evolution, and usually for good reason, considering the amount of nonsense that keeps this industry afloat on its cloud of hot steamy air!!!! But... we can still happily acknowledge those titans who have succeeded in leading the way or paving new ground in their respective fields and, in turn, give credit when it is well deserved.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been working with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to look into the attacks on its Chinese servers.
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In the final episode of this series about the death of Internet anonymity, Saunders describes how the Internet of the future will start to attain a level of intelligence that requires no human intervention. Scary.
What can users today do to protect their online privacy? The simplest and most obvious option is to not use the Internet – at all. However, once all digital information is consolidated over the Internet, trying to protect digital identity by simply unplugging from the Internet becomes impossible – a fact that has manifest implications for civil liberties, Saunders says.
By 2011 the number of Internet-connected sensors will exceed 1 trillion, making your chances of doing anything or going anywhere unnoticed pretty much zero. Saunders talks about how the 'sensortization' of the Internet is eliminating the traditional divide between online and offline populations.
The 20th Century Internet was characterized by the ability to interact with other people and information on the Internet largely without anyone knowing who you were. The Internet of this century, conversely, will be defined by identity. Saunders explains how Internet users are unwittingly contributing to the demise of the anonymous Internet.
Steve Saunders talks about the risks inherent in uncontrolled, widespread profiling of Internet users, and how one day this practice could form the basis of a new industry, the Outernet, which in economic terms will have outgrown the commercial value of the Internet itself.
Search companies and social networks are collecting incredibly detailed information about their users, says Steve Saunders, who predicts that these 'profiles' could one day become commodities to be bought and sold by companies on 'profile markets' or 'identity exchanges’ – the digital DNA equivalents of the financial and commodities exchanges on which stocks, oil, and gold are traded.
One of the most important Internet issues of all time is being ignored by the media. In this three-part video series Steve Saunders explains how search companies are turning the tables on their users by creating user profiles for financial gain, and how soon this trend will explode into full scale profiling.
The Google backlash continues. After seeing their Project 10^100 submissions disappear into the bowels of a Google server farm, a group of irate developers has started their own site to re-collect and vote on the ideas.
Now that Bing has struck a deal with Twitter, its search service will have to process a tsunami of Tweets, many of which are worthless junk. Stefan Weitz, director with Bing Search, explains to Michael Singer how his service will make sense of the Twitter mayhem to provide relevant results to end users and enterprises.
Research shows that the youth of today like Facebook – but not blogging or Twitter. Does that mean Facebook has won, or just that it's not yet out of favor? Will all the services we see today fade into Ovaltine-or-Wheaties status in just a few years?
What kinds of companies are doing the most innovation in the data center? Turns out it's midtier enterprises that are taking the "Just Right" approach.
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