Yahoo too proud for Microsoft's advances

Jonathan Bowers, April 18th 2008, 4:07PM

What is it about Microsoft that it seems no one wants to play with them? The global computing giant has issued an unsolicited $43 billion offer to buy Yahoo but the online portal seems to be willing to do almost anything to avoid getting into bed with Microsoft.

The logic of the move is clear to me: by teaming up both Yahoo and Microsoft can, for the first time, realistically take on search engine leader Google. This is a strategic view that I'm sure is appreciated throughout the IT community with the exception of Yahoo's senior management it seems.

In fact Yahoo's tactics appear to be to go the opposite way completely, by teaming up with Google in a deal that can surely only strengthen the search engine king's grip on its throne. Yahoo has agreed to enter a trial of using Google AdSense, which will deliver relevant Google ads alongside Yahoo's own search results. Yahoo is also reportedly in talks to take over Time Warner's AOL internet assets. All this, it seems, to thwart Microsoft.

But why? Is it because Yahoo is fiercely independent? Or is it just fiercely opposed to being bought by Microsoft? Either way I believe that Yahoo has its sense of who is its biggest competition badly skewed.

By partnering up with Microsoft, Yahoo would have the ability to take on Google for the status of the largest online search portal worldwide (and the financial prizes that come with it). Instead, by teaming with Google and taking on its technology, Yahoo is effectively announcing that Google is better. This amounts to Google standing on the summit of Mount Internet Search Engine and then Yahoo handing it a Yahoo branded box to stand on.

Yahoo would no doubt argue that it is not just a search portal and that being number one in that regard is not the be-all and end-all. It may even add that a tie-up with Google will help drive traffic to its other portal services thus strengthening its overall standing. However, for me, it seems as though business sense has given way to good old-fashioned pride. Yahoo likes being a big fish in its own pond and it does not want to be a small fish in Microsoft's vast silicone sea!

And meanwhile, everyone else with a vested interest in the internet, from managed hosting providers to mortgage advisors , lose out. Google is already starting to throw its weight around by changing its Adword rules to glean higher profits and now Yahoo has demonstrated that it is safe to continue its anticompetitive policies.

Tags: adwords, google, internet, search, search_terms
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Microsoft opens up the search market?

Jonathan Bowers, February 6th 2008, 3:56PM

It has been almost a week since Microsoft put a deal on the table for Yahoo! to consider. While we don't seem to be hearing much yet from Jerry Yang and his board of directors the rest of the industry has plenty to say - especially Google.

Google is vocal but not quite uniform in its response. One minute, MD for UK Sales Mark Howe is welcoming the competition and the next, senior vice president David Drummond is appealing to competition commissions that a merger will give rise to unfair dominance.

Naturally, the online marketing community is welcoming a long overdue challenge to Google's advertising strength but there's more to this bid underlying Google's concern than many realise. Focus has been placed on the online applications side of a deal but Microsoft has for a while now been developing its demographic ad/search capabilities and has only one rival in this area - Yahoo!.

It is difficult to get hold of accurate figures, but Wikipedia cites Windows Live Hotmail as having 260million accounts in existence which means a hugely valuable database of user information activated when users browse after login. In recent statistics, comScore places Yahoo as the web mail leader with 255m accounts so while something is a little awry it is clear is that Microsoft - with the addition of Yahoo's user data would indeed be a very formidable force in the digital advertising market.

With Google's sign up email (gmail) tiny in comparison, the ability to target ads to the right demographic is one of Google's weaknesses within the market. And with the search leader's DoubleClick acquisition moving forward Microsoft needs to do something to avoid being left behind entirely. The Yahoo! bid brings it back in the eyes of all involved as a force to be reckoned with.

I for one am very excited about how this will develop over the coming weeks and months.

Tags: advertising, google, microsoft, search, yahoo!
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Overseas invasion targets UK consumers

Jonathan Bowers, September 5th 2007, 11:29AM

As a hosting provider UKFast gets a glimpse of the way the online industry is developing slightly ahead of other businesses. Quite often it's easy to spot which areas of the net will grow fastest or which are levelling off.

At the moment there's plenty of evidence to suggest that serious overseas companies are pushing to take a chunk of the UK market for themselves. And this isn't necessarily in one particular sector - although some are leading the field - it looks like this is happening across the board.

We now know that you rank more highly on search if you host in the country of the searcher, so if you are appealing to the markets in the UK and Germany, you should make sure you have a good host for some of your solution in Germany as well as here in the UK.

By the size of the solutions foreign companies are taking with UKFast, it's fair to say that they are very serious about our market. The largest UK online businesses in each sector will not be that worried by them but much of the SME market needs to make sure it is competitive enough with it's hosting to fend off this foreign invasion.

Tags: global_community, hosting, search
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Power to the privacy advocates - or is it?

Jonathan Bowers, July 24th 2007, 4:52PM

We should all be pleased that the five big search engines have now shown a commitment to reducing the length of time that they retain potentially sensitive data about their users. Microsoft and Yahoo! announced their intentions this week, which means that Microsoft and Google have publicly agreed to keep user data for no longer than 18 months, Yahoo! and AOL for 13 months and Ask.com is unveiling a new tool that allows users to block the retention of specific search terms and their computer's IP address.

Does this suggest that for the serious privacy advocate there's really only one search engine of choice? After all, ask.com appears to be going way beyond the other four and has prompted Microsoft to pledge similar functionality in its search engine by the end of the year. However, if you're a privacy advocate who is also serious about search results then will it be enough to make you, as a Google user, switch engine?

For many, this is a great step forward but I am not sure that it is enough to encourage a sizeable volume of searchers away from Google (with its 75%+ share of the UK search market) and prompt the search leader to take similar steps.

Tags: privacy, search
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A virtual service dominating the world?

Jonathan Bowers, April 25th 2007, 5:12PM

With Millward Brown naming Google as the world's biggest brand for the first time this year, people are once again suggesting that the Internet super brand is becoming too powerful.

Back in 2002 many businesses who had enjoyed strong Google rankings simply dropped off the radar and questions were asked about the power of the search engine. When they bought Blogger in 2003, the murmurings began again and Bill Thompson of the BBC wondered whether we should have Ofsearch to regulate the industry.

Last year Google bought YouTube and the vocal opposition was back in force. With Google's recent acquisition of DoubleClick the online marketing community is now up in arms.

This can be viewed as a mindset problem. Google has done its part in placing itself at the top of the search engine table - but we as users have done the lion's share. The marketing industry has always promoted Google above all other engines and will no doubt continue to do so. A client of mine remembered how he was affected by Google's sudden shut down of some companies in 2002 saying, "we switched our attention to Yahoo and just prayed that Google would be back before too long."

I believe the industry is underestimating its ability to affect the fortunes of Google and concentrating too much on the notion of Google's ability to affect their fortunes. What would happen if every UK business decided to turn it's efforts to Yahoo tomorrow?

Tags: google, search
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