Technical Tidbits

According to a AP article by Michael Liedtke posted this morning, Microsoft has decided to scrap the idea of buying Yahoo! WHOO HOOO! (Or is it, YAHOO!)

Although the news is outstanding for those of us who do not want to see M$ get it’s loser hands on Yahoo, there are two exceptions I took to the Liedtke article.

He says,

Microsoft Corp. withdrew its $42.3 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc. on Saturday, scrapping an attempt to snap up the tarnished Internet icon in hopes of toppling online search and advertising leader Google Inc.

First Mr. Liedtke, I, as a longstanding user of Yahoo, don’t believe that Yahoo is a tarnished Internet icon.

Secondly, I don’t believe for one second that even if M$ had purchased Yahoo, it would ever be capable of toppling Google!

To elaborate on the first exception, those who call Yahoo a tarnished Internet icon, obviously don’t use Yahoo. Perhaps it is tarnished because it is not the best search engine on the block, that much I will admit, but there are things that it does well - and better - then others!

1. People Search. I never bother searching for people anywhere else. Their people search (white pages, yellow pages, reverse look-up, and so on) have always delivered results for me.

2. My Yahoo. I love the customization abilities with the My Yahoo pages. When I login to my My Yahoo page, I get everything I need at one glance first thing in the morning. I can see:

• 5 different weather zones.
• My Yahoo Groups
• My News Headlines that I choose
• News about the stocks I’m interested in
• Comics I like to read daily
• Horoscopes
• Any other items I want to add to my pages

3. Yahoo Financial. Delivers outstanding, relevant information for anyone involved in the stock market. I just set up my page with the current stock symbols I’m watching and I can see as much, or as little of the information I want. This includes graphs!

4. Yahoo Groups - FREECYCLE. Got something you want to get rid of but it might be useful to someone else? Don’t throw it in the dump, Freecycle it! To any of Yahoo’s shareholders who does not know about these geo-targeted groups, you need to check it out!

5. Yahoo Answers. I’ve looked up some interesting things on the Yahoo Answers that would’ve taken me a long time to narrow down through Ask.com or a Google search. AND without the constant barrage of flashing ads on about.com!

So you see, Mr. Liedtke, to it’s users, Yahoo is far more than a search engine or advertising server.

And to companies like Microsoft, don’t underestimate the power of the Yahoo User community! We go there because of what Yahoo does and how it provides what other sites do not. Even Facebook, MySpace, and Google doesn’t give me what I have with Yahoo. And if you take it away, I’ll go away and so will many other users. So, what good would it be to have a site that no one visits? What good are your ads and search when no one visits it?

Now, in reference to my second exception about M$ toppling Google…..

There’s an old saying about a snowballs chance in hell. Have you heard it?

Microsoft has Live Search and its predecessor, MSN search. Was MSN useful as a search engine? NO! Is Live Search useful as a search engine? NO! So why does Microsoft even think Yahoo would do it any good? In fact, everything M$ touches turns to crap so we users can only assume that you would also ruin Yahoo!

So Microsoft, since you can’t make your own search efforts work, and everything you touch turns to crap, and you’d turn Yahoo to crap, then by deduction, you wouldn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of even trying to compete with Google!

In fact, you’d probably help Google conquer the world because everyone would run from Yahoo the minute you purchased it!

In closing, I commend the shareholders for being greedy little bastards! It helped save Yahoo for now.

written by Admin \\ tags: AP, Associated Press, Freecycle, google, live search, Michael Liedtke, Microsoft, microsoft search, msn, search, shareholders, tarnished Internet icon, Yahoo, Yahoo News, yahoo shareholders

After watching Cavuto on the Fox Business network last evening, I was so enraged I could hardly sleep.

In case you have your head buried under a rock and haven’t heard, M$ has threatened a hostile takeover of Yahoo by going directly to the shareholders.

Okay, I’m not an illiterate who doesn’t understand our capitalist society and I understand economics. And yes, I understand that the SHAREHOLDERS want MONEY for their Yahoo stock. I get that.

What gets my blood pressure boiling to stroke level is the whole idea that anyone would think that Microsoft buying Yahoo is a good idea in the first place!

Everything M$ touches turns to crap. If M$ buys Yahoo, I will move my mail to Google, I’ll never again use Freecycle (a Yahoo Group), and I’ll never use any search but Google!

I was also considering moving to ATT DSL. NOT anymore! ATT is using Yahoo! It’s ATT/Yahoo.  So what next? ATT/Microsoft-Yahoo?  M$ has fracked up my computer so much they are not going to get the opportunity to screw with my connection too! NO THANK YOU!

Or maybe M$ wants to be able to install some more stealth updates through the connections? Again, NO THANK YOU!

I was also going to buy a Ford Hybrid Escape. Until I heard it comes with M$ Synch. I don’t think I want to have to reboot my car every time M$ Synch fails! That could be very hazardous in traffic.

Microsoft has its grubby, greedy claws in cars (Synch), MP3 players (Zune), gaming systems (XBox), search engines and advertising (MSN and useless MS Live Search), alleged security (Defender and Malicious Software Removal Tool), and they can’t even create a secure Operating System which was what they initially built their business on! And we are expected to believe that they will do Yahoo right? If you believe that, I have a bridge for you to buy!

Then, one of Cavuto’s guests made a comment that Yahoo has decided to make changes in the way they do advertising that’s supposed to improve their profits. She says, that given we’re in a recession that spending for online advertising is only going to decrease. EXCUSE ME? Do you have your head under a rocklady?

I don’t know what research or reports she’s been reading, but everything I’m reading says online advertising is up given the fact that the brilliant geniuses who do research for television advertising finally figured out that we consumers are putting our shows on DVR so we can fast forward past the commercials! We aren’t watching them anymore! So companies are pumping far more money into online advertising where we can’t fast forward! They have captive audiences!

Microsoft used to have a vision statement that read, “A PC on every desktop.” I think their new vision statement is, “World domination whether we are good at it or not.”

The only thing I can hope for now is that IF M$ is allowed to pursue the hostile takeover of Yahoo, and they are successful, that this will mark the beginning of the end of Microsoft Corporation.

I can see it all now…… Linux on every desktop, running Google aps or Open Office. And the History Channel running a documentary that mentions - briefly - the software giant that was once called Microsoft and how it disappeared from history like the fall of the great Roman Empire.  We can only hope!

written by Admin \\ tags: Cavuto, Fox Business, hostile takeover, Microsoft, Yahoo, yahoo shareholders