MicroYahoo!
It’s been rumored for years. Heck, it’s been suggested for years. But now, it’s finally official — Microsoft is gambling $44.6 billion on a lockup with Yahoo!
Yahoo is light years ahead of MSFT in terms of web apps and web integration, but YHOO’s big Web 2.0 buying binge didn’t get them much traction on Google. So, here we see two companies, once dominant and monopolistic in their fields, running to each other to try and stave off the new monopoly that Google has become.
And MSFT has been sitting on BILLIONS in cash for years. In fact, a few years ago investors whined to them because they weren’t getting a cut of that cash (and MSFT complied). And now, MSFT is finally spending some money. I don’t think it’s their last move, either. They’re waiting for Mark Zuckerberg to finally cave into their standing offer for Facebook.
Just when it looked like Google was the new MSFT, MSFT reminds the world they were the Big Bad Bully first.
Now, if they’d just get SP1 finished up for Vista… please? Because this thing where my computer just stops for a whole minute then unfreezes, that’s really, really annoying.
You could just "switch". ;)
–Wayne
I really really miss the old Yahoo. I’m talking the old directory based Y!. Something like http://web.archive.org/web/19990208021720/http://www9.yahoo.com/. That’s what the whole new ’search’ generation is missing. Back in the day, when I was looking for something, I’d fire up two browsers (before tabs), one at Yahoo, one at Google, I’d start searching at Goog and then trolling the directory at Yahoo, generally finding what I needed in a combination of the two.
I miss that. I miss a user-built, moderated directory of the Internet. Heck, I think there’s still space for it in the world…
Oh wow, John. That archived Yahoo! page is something, isn’t it? I miss it, too. Today’s Yahoo! is an utter mess. I’m not optimistic that MSFT will help.
I am just really worried about what happens to flickr if this goes through. And, to a lesser extent, Upcoming.