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."

Comments

Google?

[biocute]

"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?

[jellomizer]

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?

[LegendLength]

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....

[spiritraveller]

"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.

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

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

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

Amnesty International disagrees with you:

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

[Irish_Samurai]

"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.

Stupid

[nagora]

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

[guacamole]

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

[fireboy1919]

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.

Specialize

[Bios_Hakr]

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.