I don't know why you people believe that if Microsoft buys Yahoo, they will surpass adsense and they will provide excellent services for webmasters. They didn't do it so far, they won't do it from now on either. In fact, you've seen Microsoft's policy so far. Buy successful free services and make them paid afterwards. If Microsoft eliminates their search competition, we're facing a big monopoly over both online and offline world.
Well, maybe not in cash. A combo of stocks would also be needed and authorities would never approve the deal. Just imagine- the computer giant and the internet giant together. Scary. I agree here that Microsoft has a huge diversity in business while Google has only one revenue source. Google is not much of a threat to Microsoft at this point. Microsoft can pour its billions from OS's, Office, ads, XBox and all its other parts into AdCenter, while Google is riding on AdWords. If the deal goes through, they'll be the web's second most powerful company. Combined, they have 30% market share to Google's 60%.
Google: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=GOOG&annual 18,473,351,000 (18.4 Billion) Dollar in Assets Total Microsoft: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=MSFT&annual 63,171,000,000 (63.1 Billion) Dollar in Assets Total Now imagine MSFT + YHOO: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=YHOO&annual 11,513,608 (11.5 Billion) Dollar in Assets Total + 63,171,000,000 (63.1 Billion) Dollar in Assets Total ----------------------------------------------------------------- 74.6 Billion
Well that's interesting information, but where did you find it? You mean search market share, right? In operating systems live on the internet for example Google is null and MSFT....well MSFT is around what 90% or more? If you mean in search then I would say it's even more than 60% considering my site's stats. Same SERP positions almost and GOOG sends me 10 times more traffic(really x 10).
Just as I said and so too the us news article that verne posted a link to... Microsoft and yahoo just don't get it. Make it simple user friendly and a good value and people will like it. Everyone knows windows Vista should cost 39.95 and that Bill gates is screwing them when they have to spend so much more to buy it. In response people shun Microsoft online. Then there is stuff like what Microsoft is trying to pull on the Open source community with Linux. Gates thinks people are just stupid and they will not take his companies culture into account. Yes Bill go ahead and buy Yahoo you idiot. More people in those meetings and you surly will find the answer as to why you suck at competing with the Google. Just as mark123456 and Dwaighty said. Competing with the Google could be done but the players now just don't get how to pull it off. I actually think a startup that was well funded and run by smart people could step in and compete with Google as if the interface was excellent and the split published and fair and the marketing done right it could grow wings and take off. I think it would need to be open source and thought of as cool and it could fly. Webmasters everywhere are getting fed up with adsense as they know the split is way in the Google's favor and thus the Google is starting to be seen as what they claim they are not and that is evil. Sorry Google but you place ads on my website and you take 51% or more and I will call you Evil and I will go to your competition in a flash if they don't screw me as you are doing now and they do all the other stuff very well as in a really good back end that is super easy to use. ###
It's been in the news. I happen to have an old ComScore subscription, but here are Nielsen numbers for search share in the US. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/sto...-44A9-95D6-2EFF58F6EB04&dist=SecMostCommented Yep, Microsoft is about 90% in OS's. Well, your site is probably segmented to a certain audience. Microsoft has it's demographics. (Although, somehow, I don't know anyone who actively uses Yahoo and Microsoft for search.)
C'mon man. That's a simplistic view. Yahoo and MSN have the same interface as Google. Vista is pretty powerful, and Microsoft is an OS monopoly, so it gets to charge whatever it wants. People don't shun Microsoft because it overcharges for Vista. They leave it because the results tend to be worse, and Google is an established brand for search. See, the average person doesn't give a crap about Microsoft culture. You are probably a webmaster and a techie, so you have a more vested interest. But if you go to the average Windows user, they like it. And they don't care about MSFT culture. Of course a startup can dethrone Google. I can become the president. Whether it will happen... But I do think that Google will be dethroned eventually. It's part of the Silicon Valley cycle. Winners come and go in ten years, and are replaced. Does it have to be open source? No. An open source algorithm will have spammers taking advantage of knowing all the tricks to boost their rankings, leading to irrelevant search results. Google takes about 23% of your revenue. Probably a little more than that. That is actually comparatively a higher revenue share to you than other ad networks. And in the end, Google doesn't care about its smaller publishers. When's the last time you actually received a good support response? Or tried to dispute a banning and it worked? Google is too busy pouring millions into MySpace and the New York times to care about the small publisher. AdSense is not one of its more profitable units. Google makes way more revenue and profit off the ads next to the search results than all of the AdSense sites combined.
I really don't see what people are so happy about. If Ms buys Yahoo that means that they are one step closer to dominating the entire PC market. They will dominate the operating system and the internet. Looking at Ms history I don't think they are a company I would like to see have a big share in the search market. Sooner or latter FF or Opera won't work with Yahoo... Not compatible!!!
Hotyamail? I certainly hope they will take away the anti spam functions of Yahoo which is certainly a nightmare and some improvements on Hotmail own anti spamming would be ideal. Trying to better the anti spamming capability of Gmail would not be easy though.
Just check their balance sheet here... http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=MSFT MS have 7 Billion+ in cash (As in December 2007)...... while Google have 5 Billion+ in cash (As in September 2007)...... Also MS have Short Term Investments of 13 Billion and Google have 7 Billion........