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.”
February 3, 2008 at 8:36 pm |
Why do companies continue to believe that If you put two dogs together you get a pony? ~ Jon Fine, Business Week media columnist
February 4, 2008 at 11:19 pm |
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.
February 5, 2008 at 9:16 am |
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’.