The jury is out on the effects of the deal. I would suggest to only read the headlines of the posts I link to to get the main message.
My conclusion:
- Two times lame on the internet – old school client side software company & old media company = still lame.
- No real vision on how to create value for customers. Yes, ‘customers’ is intended use. If you think ‘users’ that’s part of the problem. Go read the Cluetrain.
Therefore: YahooSoft a threat to Google?
As Jeff Jarvis puts it:
“Will this be big enough to beat Google? No, because big won’t win in the end. Open will.”
Why do companies continue to believe that If you put two dogs together you get a pony? ~ Jon Fine, Business Week media columnist
I am not sure. With (eg) Yahoo and Microsoft both supporting the DataPortability initiative, I expect them to jump the ‘Open’ bandwagon as well. On the other hand, Google is no small player either. I cannot predict where Google is going with its tracking of basically everything I do on the Web (to its credit, because Google has the best Web services).
The future will tell, but I wouldn’t want to consider the rivalry between MicrosHoo and Google as a fight between bad and good.
I am also not saying that it’s a fight between good and bad. My main impression though is that both Microsoft and Yahoo! don’t have a real vision yet on how to create value for customers on the web. And often, these value adding initiatives are more open by nature. And my guess is that that’s a DNA issue. Hope they can figure it out though because we would be better off with 2 ‘Google’s’.