Microsoft Makes 44.6 Billion Dollar Bid for Yahoo!
As far as big news on a day I take off from work (terrorist attacks, shuttle explosion), this is rather tame.
I don't know what to think... I guess really the only thing I disliked about Yahoo! was its name. Yahoo! actually owns two products (they didn't create themselves, just purchased) that I do pay money for enhanced versions of - Flickr and LaunchCast.
Now, Microsoft... I'm not sure why, but I like Microsoft. I mean, I like Google better. Microsoft makes web products that are so bloated they eventually become useless (Messenger, Hotmail, Internet Explorer) and their design is always so heavy and clunky. They take something (backgrounds with a gradient) and run them into the ground. I keep wanting Microsoft to get it, with all the great examples (to name two, here and here) but they keep not getting it.
Yeah, I know that's one-sided, comparing everyone's favorite cute little kitten, Apple, against the big mean fatcat, Microsoft, but I think it's still doable. Apple has (as Joel says above) has a culture, or at least a cohesive face. Microsoft doesn't. And what it does isn't pretty. It would require a seachange and a lot of patience to make Microsoft look different. Maybe merging MSN into Yahoo! and keeping the Yahoo! look and feel online won't last. Would that ever happen? Doubtful, Microsoft seems to be a very proud company and there's a lot of overlap between MSN and Yahoo!, and you have to think they'd keep the MSN version in any head-to-head, even if it were the inferior product.
Maybe I like Microsoft because of my home-team rule. (The Home-Team rule says you must cheer for the home team because this is your home. I hate it when people blab on and on about a sports team from where they used to live. Love it so much? Go back there. College students are exempted from the rule because they may just be long-term visitors.)
But I'd like to see Microsoft do well. It'd be an uphill fight against the common public opinion. As with everything, yeah, you gotta do things well, but more than anything, you gotta have style and you gotta have excellent marketing chops. Leopard has more flaws and virus vulnerabilities than Vista. But people are paying serious money for "point revision" upgrades to Leopard... it works. Vista apparently doesn't. And that's just sad.
C'mon, Microsoft. It's time for a change. Use Yahoo! to slingshot yourself. Protect Yahoo! from the bad Microsoft culture while designing something brand new that picks the best from both while leaving the bad behind.
5 comments:
happy birthday, tvj!
I will praise Microsoft's Photo Story 3 software, a free and easy program for doing as the name implies. I will also state the Office 2007 version of PowerPoint sucks least of any earlier version.
Regarding Vista having better security than Leopard... yes and no. Having done my fair share of software installs on Vista PCs lately, I can tell you things have changed in the last few months. One of the chief selling points of Vista is the increased security, and the default settings were set at the highest levels... until recently. Having them set at the highest levels meant multiple prompts to run, access, open, or give permission to do a given task. This angered and frustrated average and above average users, and it appears Microsoft has responded in the oddest way. The last two new Vista PCs I worked on were owned by people who knew less about computers than my mom so they couldn't possibly have messed with the security features even if they wanted to. Long story short, the security features (and their corresponding warnings and prompts) had been deactivated at the factory level, so people will complain less... until a virus creeps into their PC.
As for Microsoft wanting to buy Yahoo, who really cares in the scheme of things. Yahoo is already cluttered and slower than Google. I won't notice a difference... at least not right away. I suppose they may rebrand it MSNYahoo or something even more stupid.
As a long time Yahooligan, I'd prefer if Microsoft kept their mitts off of my precious Yahoo. Sure, it would probably be good in the long run, but something about Microsoft doesn't seem like it would blend well with Yahoo. On the other hand, this Google alliance Yahoo is supposedly looking into has me interested. Not that I'm a big Google fan either, but I do like them more than Microsoft as at the present time, their products are of a lot more value to me.
happy birthday, tvj!
I will praise Microsoft's Photo Story 3 software, a free and easy program for doing as the name implies. I will also state the Office 2007 version of PowerPoint sucks least of any earlier version.
Regarding Vista having better security than Leopard... yes and no. Having done my fair share of software installs on Vista PCs lately, I can tell you things have changed in the last few months. One of the chief selling points of Vista is the increased security, and the default settings were set at the highest levels... until recently. Having them set at the highest levels meant multiple prompts to run, access, open, or give permission to do a given task. This angered and frustrated average and above average users, and it appears Microsoft has responded in the oddest way. The last two new Vista PCs I worked on were owned by people who knew less about computers than my mom so they couldn't possibly have messed with the security features even if they wanted to. Long story short, the security features (and their corresponding warnings and prompts) had been deactivated at the factory level, so people will complain less... until a virus creeps into their PC.
As for Microsoft wanting to buy Yahoo, who really cares in the scheme of things. Yahoo is already cluttered and slower than Google. I won't notice a difference... at least not right away. I suppose they may rebrand it MSNYahoo or something even more stupid.
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