Yahoo Rejects Microsoft Search Offer

mytrip writes to mention a Financial Times article detailing Microsoft's apparent interest in Yahoo!, and Yahoo!'s rude reaction to their interest. From the article: "The fight is on between the three internet search titans, after Yahoo's Terry Semel laid down the gauntlet to Microsoft saying the software giant's recently elevated ambitions in the search arena were a lost cause. 'My impartial advice to Microsoft is that you have no chance. The search business has been formed,' he said in an interview with the New Yorker's Ken Auletta."

Google?

"The search business has been formed", that was what I heard when Yahoo was teh king, and guess who came in and took over the search business?

Re:Google?

The only problem was Yahoo was the king before it became king before the Internet became common place .
First you take an idea that someone else made and mature it.
You become the King until the market stabilizes.
Then someone else takes your place for the stable market.

It is not fair but that is the way it seems to go.

Like GUI OS's
Xerox made the GUI Interface.
Apple took the idea and matured it.
Apple becomes the king of GUI
Then Microsoft comes and takes your ideas and wins for the stable GUI market.

It is not always about quality it is just about having the charm to get most people to use it over something else.
Like Google seemed to load a little faster then Yahoo so people with dial-ups used it more. And when the internet became common place and mature a lot of people were still using dialup.

Re:Google?

The only problem was Yahoo was the king before the Internet became common place .

No I reckon their biggest problem was the amount of crap on their front page.

That quote brings to mind the phrase....

"famous last words"

And I'm not sure who I dislike more at this point.

At least Microsoft hasn't been handing political prisoners over to the Chinese government [slashdot.org].

Re:That quote brings to mind the phrase....

At least Microsoft hasn't been handing political prisoners over to the Chinese government.

Amnesty International disagrees with you: [guardian.co.uk]

An Amnesty International report has cited Microsoft among a clutch of leading computer firms heavily criticised for helping to fuel 'a dramatic rise in the number of people detained or sentenced for internet-related offences'.

They just didn't get caught as badly as Yahoo did.

So - feel free to dislike them both.

That sound bite is gonna come back and bite ya

"My impartial advice to Microsoft is that you have no chance. The search business has been formed,"

I dunno, that sounds similar to the boasts made by almost every large company head right before they get their ass handed to them by someone.

So let's see...

I hate Yahoo search, I REALLY hate MSN search... If they had combined I may have spontaneously combusted from the new, dangerously high levels of hatred coursing through my veins. That was close.

Transcription of dialogue...

MS Rep: Hey baby, how 'bout lettin' big daddy in on a piece o' that action?
Y! Rep: Oh no you dit'in! Oh no you dit'in! (gesticulates the talk-to-the-hand)

Stupid

It may be that Yahoo's search engine is better than MS's (just as a kick in the balls is better than being shot in the head) but to say that the world's richest company has no chance in any field just shows that the speaker is an idiot.

TWW

My humble advise to Yahoo! and Google

Be very afraid. One thing that sets Microsoft apart from many of its competitors is persistence when it comes to products and technologies that are important to Microsoft's core business. Add to that the fact that MS has a huge multi-billion $$ war chest and their dominant position in the operating systems and web browsers and you see that they have not only the will but also the resources to be persistent. This battle won't be over any time soon.

Re:My humble advise to Yahoo! and Google

That's probably true. But I can't help but thinking that unlike every other problem Microsoft has dealt with, search is different.

Search is hard.

Look at every other product that Microsoft made. It doesn't really require any genius-level intuition to solve or anything like that. It's ordinary, straightforward implementations that are being done. Back in the day it would have taken a genius, but Microsoft got to borrow ideas that have been published by other people. Further, they don't even do it well. Their primary concern is getting it done and filling it with lots of features. That's not going to work for search.

I would put it to you that it is very difficult to come up with a way of doing something that works well when the thing you want to do is hard, and that, in general, throwing money at it doesn't help.

If you are to prove to me that Microsoft's giagantinormous size is going to do it for them, then tell me about their track-record of genius.

Really why should they?

don't see what Yahoo really has to gain with MSN? I like google so I use it. My Girl Friend prefers Yahoo. And I am sure someone out there prefers MSN. But most of the sites they all have. If I find one search method is becoming to tedious then I use an other one. Combining Yahoo and MSN would hurt Yahoo. First there is the people who just don't use MS. Stuff when possible which would be around 10% of the population (Figuring most Linux users and Apple users alternative OS users, and windows users who are afraid of Microsoft dominance but only know windows. ). Yahoo will need to split their advertising dollars with MS. Any software improvements probably wont affect the bottom line. And it will do nothing against Google. Google is a verb in the english language now. When the company branding becomes imbedded in the culture it is difficult to change it. Like Jello and Kleenex other companies can sell similar products but the culture still thinks of the brand name. Going with Yahoo will only benefit MS. And at best Yahoo will loose nothing, but in reality yahoo my loose more.

So.. Yahoo rejects Microsoft. In other news..

A non-standard precipitation warning has been issued for the Redmond, WA area, as it is expected to be raining chairs for the next few days, or until Steve Ballmer runs out of furniture..

Pretty obvious stance...

The only search engine with less traffic than Microsoft's is AOL's, and a number of more obscure ones.

Yahoo is receiving more than twice their traffic, and likely ad revenue potential as well.

There'd be a lot to win for Microsoft if joining forces with Yahoo, but I'm not sure Yahoo would sacrifice their image. If their managers have any sense, they know it's important to preserve your identity, especially if you're quite far ahead.

This just looks like a cry for help from Microsoft's side, now that their second (?) "Google Killer" with "Live Search" (a very idiotic name too; why not "Microsoft Search"?) has probably failed just as bad as their updated MSN Search they did a few years back.

Homepage

I predict this will probably appear in the news in the next few weeks.

"And in a surprising move, Microsoft has chosen to make live.com the default homepage any new Internet Explorer installation."

Microsoft 1, Yahoo -screwed-

Familiar

'My impartial advice to Microsoft is that you have no chance. The search business has been formed,'

Because Microsoft's entire history hasn't been one of moving in to an area where other people have worked out how to do things and then doing them better/cheaper/faster.

Impartial???

If he had googled for "dictionary impartial" he would not have made such an egregious error. ZB

Specialize

While MS might have problems breaking into a full search system, there is a ton of room for a company that can do one thing really well.

Look at ISO Hunt. They picked an area and really cached in on it.

My advice to MS: become the best video game search engine out there. It'd be really easy. Have a box to search and buttons to look for reviews, purchace, FAQs/walkthroughs, and cheats.

Hell, you could pick anything. But do one thing and do it really well.

Breaking News

Terry Semel of Yahoo! corporation was found dead this morning. At this point the cause of death is being attributed to a chair leg that is still lodged deeply inside the victim's skull. Police have ruled out accidental death and are compiling a list of suspects.

How are you gentlemen

My impartial advice to Microsoft is that you have no chance,' [Yahoo's Terry Semel] said.

When asked for comment, Google's representative, CATS, said, "Ohhh, no, no, no. All your search are belong to us."

Bull

Bull, meet red rag..

Well...

Guess we know there's only one thing left for Microsoft to do... buy Google.

Impartial Advice?

'My impartial advice to Microsoft is that you have no chance. The search business has been formed,'

Yeah, cuz he's got nothing to gain or lose in this battle... impartial my aunt Susie!

Yahoo gives up search

So just because Yahoo has decided they can't compete with Google and will be happy to just maintain what marketshare they have, no one else can compete with Google either? Awfully bold statement from someone who has given up.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/256748_yaho o24.html [nwsource.com]

Yahoo! Inc., one of the first Internet search companies, has capitulated to Google Inc. in the battle for market dominance. "We don't think it's reasonable to assume we're going to gain a lot of share from Google," Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. "It's not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share."

Is that what he told his investment banker when...

...Google floated their IPO?

Yahoo Rejects Microsoft Search Offer

This sounds familiar (Marc Andreessen).

In related news....

Second toughest guy from bar pokes brown kodiak bear with stick.

Second toughest guy quotes "You have no chance bear, the tough person in bar market is formed"

Meanwhile the toughest buy in the bar is buying a shotgun and bear hunting license, and getting to a safer shooting distance.

Sony said the same thing about xbox

I remember earlier times of XBox Sony kind of publicly warned Microsoft that "electronic device business is very different".

I don't even dare to search news for "sony" "xbox" etc, perhaps an actual console fan/user find a link for it.

Microsoft ignored the warning and the first story came after Xbox ships in Japan that it actually SCRATCHED a certain type of DVDs physically.

Phew

It would be nice to keep some sort of competition out there. With games consoles, search, tv, and everything else, I don't want to end up giving more to Microsoft in a year than I do to the government in tax!

lets be serious here

Does anyone really doubt that MS can (and will) scream ahead of Yahoo in market share in the coming years? Yahoo is a relic of the early interent, with little innovation on its side. Google is a whole other affair, where I don't see MS winning. At least not unless they do much something better than their live site.

LOL

As soon as MSN search produces somewhat usefull results (and now they do) they will have at least 50% market share among systems that have MSN search on default.

Personal estimate, wait for 2 years and see for yourself.

Watch Terry comment this in this video interview.

Digg [digg.com] mentions a video interview [toprankblog.com] with Yahoo!'s CEO, Terry Semel. One of the topics was mentioned about this MS and search (e.g., no room in search market for MS, etc.).