For the record, so do I. Mainly, because I am a satisfied Yahoo! Mail user and I very much dislike the idea of being back at Microsoft - the whole fricking point of me changing from Hotmail to Yahoo, oh, 6 or 7 years ago now.
But let's focus on the more interesting part of this deal. Whereas Microsoft wants Yahoo, the feeling clearly isn mutual - Yahoo is just with its back against the wall, looking for an escape route. No merger or hostile takeover by Microsoft would be benificial to Yahoo as a brand, but they have not done well in the years past and shareholders will probably take the money (even with the Microsoft stock reducing the market value of the offer).
In the meanwhile, Google is scheming and plotting behind the big doors of the Google fortress. Their claims against Microsoft are hardly likely to be taken seriously - after all, their takeover of DoubleClick was criticized by the other parties involved in this deal. No bid they bring will and can be taken seriously, for all their goodwill that would certainly be considered too monopolist. They could try with the EU, for in the EU a takeover that helps strengthening a monopolist in its market share is illegal - however, it would have to be with strong evidence that Yahoo! could support the marketshare for Windows or Internet Explorer. The latter of course might be possible (just imagine the horror: yahoo! mail working only by IE 7 standards rather than W3C standards). My biggest guess is they'll not rely on politicians to do the work for them. They probably prefer scheming with companies and venture capitalists to buy yahoo, split it up dramatically (this WILL be a slaughter) and sell each individual part for its remaining worth, with google compensating possible losses. Without serious engagers who would have Yahoo, that would be much preferable to Microsoft gaining control of it all.
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2 comments:
I dunno, I was never a big fan of Yahoo either, I think both companies are equally guilty of producing buggy bloatware and find both Hotmail and Yahoo mail infinitely inferior to Gmail.
It does make you wonder, though, how both companies' products will integrate with one another. I'm sure the result will to combine the bloat and buggyness of both companies into one sinister email product that no sensible person would even glance at.
If the Register is to be believed, though,
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/04/ie8_web_standards/
the new IE8 is going to be standards compliant - I'll believe that when I see it. In the meantime I'll stick with my Gmail and Firefox and fully intend to avoid Microhoo like the plague.
Well, in product space you're right. But I trust Yahoo! as a company, and can say as much for Microsoft or Google (working with Google on a daily basis has shown me that they're less 'good' than they pretend to be, although not exactly evil). Not that there's more to be trusted on a Yahoo basis, I just trust their incompetence to never finish anything they start. Yahoo! mail is a great product, unless you want to change any settings - that still hasn't been implemented in the new version. Besides, they kind of warrant your privacy, whereas Google demands the explicit right to read and process your e-mail.
On the IE8-issue. Good stuff. If it's true, which is about as likely as OOXML being truly and totally open, it'll open the path for real browsers to take on the net, with FF in the lead. Functionality in IE has always been behind on e.g. Opera and FF. Since I doubt that M$ will be innovative for once, that'll probably convince most savvy users to switch. Once we're on that point, competition and the market will decide the rules. :-)
Thanks for your comment.
Wesley
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