Microsoft, Yahoo, Google pa tak

by dare

Ne bi hotel biti (preveč) pameten glede Microsoftove ponudbe za nakup Yahooja. O tem se je itak govorilo že dolgo, pa dovolj komentarjev je na netu. Nekako se strinjam s tistimi, ki se jim zdi, da je to Microsoftova poteza iz obupa (Googlu v searchu nikakor ne uspejo seči niti do kolen) ter da sta podjetji čisto preveč različni za neko smiselno integracijo.

Me je pa malo zaskrbelo, ko sem prebral tole jamranje na Googlovem uradnem blogu:

So Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.

Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies—and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.

Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft—despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses—to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors’ email, IM, and web-based services? Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions—and consumers deserve satisfying answers.

Vendar so me kmalu potolažile naslednje besede:

“Google has to put up a stink just because that’s their role in this situation,” says Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, a market intelligence firm. “But if I were in the boardroom at Google I would say something like, ‘Let’s act really upset about this deal but then let it slip through our fingers and have it go through.’”

Mogoče dopustiti samouničenje ni tako slaba strategija. Edino Yahooja se mi zdi škoda. Kljub pomanjkanju neke res dolgoročne vizije imajo veliko talentiranih inženirjev in delajo dobre storitve. Za njih in za cel net bi bilo verjetno boljše, če bi iskalnik spet outsourcali Googlu, in inženirske talente skoncentrirali na stvari, ki jih dobro počnejo…

Za konec še en boljših komentarjev… kdo drug kot FSJ:


The Borg-Yahoo merger won’t work. Here’s why. It’s like taking the two guys who finished second and third in a 100-yard dash and tying their legs together and asking for a rematch, believing that now they’ll run faster.

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