image credit: tumbleweed
Earlier this week, Microsoft placed a bid for Yahoo totaling nearly a bajillion dollars (well, $44.6 billion to be precise). This possible merger conjured up conversation about Google’s monopoly of online information and their hesitancy to release it to the government (which could make them a target for investigation based on principle). Some discussed how amazing it would be to have the opportunity to impress a non-Google search engine to compete with Google while others noted that it would create confusion by creating too many places to have to do SEO sucking-up-to.I read a position today that made me think the merger might not actually be a great idea.
John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing noted:
My take is that Microsoft is admitting defeat by trying to buy their way out of it. Yahoo! has been scuffling of late and has never been a better deal, but is putting two companies together that can’t really figure out how to compete with Google going to make one company that can?
What say you? Is a potential Microhoo an awesome balance to Google, or will it be an epic fail?
Lucas Lechuga
February 3, 2008 at 1:49 am
Google would still end up winning the search engine war, in my opinion. I’m all for competition and more choices for the consumer. However, as a blogger, I personally wouldn’t feel the need to do SEO sucking-up to the new Microsoft-Yahoo search engine unless they came up with something radical which made the average Internet user feel compelled to use that new search engine. I read a book recently which stated that the founders of Google have always made it known that their goal is to one day make it possible for a search engine to be intertwined with the human brain. Basically, you ask yourself the question and the answer will come to you via the search engine. I don’t agree with that approach, because I would never want to have something embedded into my brain or body, but these guys (and gals) are very forward thinkers. Besides, they (Google) have such a firm grasp on the market right now. I NEVER conduct searches through MSN and very rarely do a search on Yahoo!
Matthew Rathbun
February 3, 2008 at 6:25 am
I’m certainly not an expert in marketing, but I have my doubts that Microhoo could compete with Google. Google figured it out long ago. They are trendy, intuitive and forward thinking. MSN and Yahoo seem to be followers. No, I think that this is more a financial investment deal and another step of Microsoft owning all things.
The reason Microsoft has beaten out Macintosh, is because they got there first and indoctrinated everyone, not necessarily because it’s a better product. Could that shift? Yes, I think so; but it take a new invention of Microhoo starting from square one to do so.
I also wonder if folks will stick with Google because it’s not “big brother” MSN. Not everyone is a big fan of the less than stable MS OS. A lot of folks see Microsoft as a necessary evil, as opposed to a great series of products. I think that folks will stay away just because they hear MS.
Ginger Wilcox
February 3, 2008 at 8:39 am
Google always seems to be one step ahead with the next idea. It seems like Microsoft and Yahoo are always chasing. Perhaps the combined power will give them a leg up, but I am not really seeing it.
Athol Kay
February 3, 2008 at 11:51 am
It’s a bad idea I think. It’s like two slower guys agreeing to tie their ankles together and run three-legged in an effort to run faster than someone who already runs faster than either one of them can.
Mark Harison
February 4, 2008 at 7:32 am
There’s an old stockmarket saying, often wrongly attributed to Warren Buffet:
– Put two bad companies together and you end up with one big bad company
Yahoo! is still stuck in a mindset that it can build “destination” sites – where people will go and stay, and the rest of the world has realised that Gen Y in particular (!) want to be always on the surf, and the trick is to provide out content in places people want.
Microsoft is learning that it’s pretty much all the market share it’s going to have (OK – it may lose a bit on the desktop to Apple and a bit on the server side to Linux, but pretty much it’s got the market share figures it’s going to.) Its ONLY option is to grow the market.
Of course, they could have given the cash back to the shareholders. If I owned MSFT I’d be pretty angry at that sort of bid for a company which has a different market, a different culture, and not much in the way of intellectual property that MS couldn’t get elsewhere. Essentially, MS is buying a customer base… of Gen Ys… and that mob don’t take well to being bought and sold.
Mark, firmly at the tail end of Gen X 🙂