When we saw the story about Microsoft wanting to acquire Yahoo, my colleagues got together to discuss why this would be an attractive fit for the two companies –much of it stems back to taking what Google has.
Microsoft has often wanted to be in the search business, they know the value of building relationships within they small and medium sized business. While search may look like the biggest cherry to pluck, Charlene gives reasons why it’s more than that. Hint, think about what google docs means to Vista and office apps.
But what about the recent Microsoft investment in Facebook, we clearly know that traditional internet advertising is a strength of the Redmond company, if MS+Yahoo will still be second place to Google, then we can expect brand advertising to be a safe bet.
I encourage you to check out those two posts, they’ve both been covering this space for a long time, and chime in and give your opinion on their reasoning. I thought Dave Taylor also did a great job of giving his analysis.
While I understand Microsoft’s interest in competing with Google, is buying Yahoo the answer? I can’t tell you that last time someone said, ‘Go to Yahoo.’ I only hear ‘Just Google it.’ It appears that Microsoft is grasping at straws.
Microsoft wants Yahoo for a host of reasons. One of which is Flickr.
Microsoft Labs has a new amazing piece of software in development called “Photosynth”. If combined with Flickr, Photosynth will revolutionize the way we look at photos.
There’s a lot more to it than Yahoo’s search functions.