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Microsoft in Talks To Acquire Ebay
thatedeguy writes "The NY Post is reporting that Microsoft and Ebay are in talks for the online auction house to join the Microsoft family." That said, the talks aren't going that well at the moment. From the article: " Sources indicate that the talks, while still active, have cooled somewhat in the last two weeks as executives considered antitrust issues. It is unclear what the full impact of yesterday's advertising and search alliance between Yahoo! and eBay will be for talks between MSN and eBay. One source close to the matter suggested the Yahoo-eBay tie-up would not stop Microsoft from pursuing the online auctioneer."
Just do your fucking OS thing and quit trying to control the world. It's getting really, really, really fucking old. You don't have to dominate EVERY ASPECT OF COMPUTING EVER.
Ex nihilo nihil fit.
You know, this short sighted argument in defense of Google will not hold up for much longer than a year or two. They have gained market share without fail since their inception.
Soon they will hit critical mass, become the defacto search choice, and are going to get the shit sued out of them by everyone and their mother. Everything from favored ranking positions to unfair bundling of free software in their download packs to the installation of thier software on Dell machines will be fair game.
You know who's going to be the biggest backer of this movement? Microsoft. They'll win too.
Let's take a look back. Before Microsoft there was no such thing as an OS monopoly. They were the first and have been dealt with heavy handed for some practices that deserved it and some that were just witch hunts. Everyone involved was essentially flying blind, or at least half blind, as this was completely new territory with no directly related reprocussions to base arguments on. Alot of it was conjecture, no one really knew what the results of certain behaviors would be.
Please, before someone loses their head and brings up the broken API's - that was pretty clear cut BS on Microsoft's part.
Let's take a look at Google now. As they approach global search dominance it soon becomes apparent that any business who wants a web presence will be at Google's mercy. If Google decides that they don't want your website listed, your screwed. If Google suddenly decides that they give priority to browsers with a certain agent id, users are screwed. If google decides that they are going to start offering a link to Firefox on their front page, the other browsers are screwed. If Google changes their algo just a little, and ends up drastically changing their rankings as result - the businesses are screwed. Every one of these behaviors has a relative action by Microsoft and a clearly defined result. How long before google has to start opening up the algo for us to see or has to stat giving us the option to use some other search engines results?
Google is quickly becoming a search monopoly, and I can't wait till they get knocked around a bit because of it. The delivery of information should NEVER go through such a pinch point. Do no evil? Bullshit, just make sure you're doing evil that the everyman has no clue about.