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Who Will Join Microsoft in the Portal Wars?
madman writes "In the light of the recent changes in the search war, like the Google/Dell partnership and eBay/Yahoo! alliance, Microsoft is facing a complicated question: Who are they going to ally with? Will they try to face the competition alone?"
"Who are they going to ally with?"
The dark side, obviously.
Resistance is futile!
Grow organically. Most takovers and and partnerships amongst large companies fail to realize their initial potential. MS should stop trying to shoe horn everything into the failed MSN model. Create a small team of talented people, give them some serious money and freedom and let them create. Do not impose Windows or MSN on them. Let them build the hardware, the software and the website. Do what apple does but with a much larger budget. I can use an IPOD without a Mac or having to go to apple.com (.mac).
obviously didn't read this.
Seriously though, I'd kill to have Microsoft's problems though: having billions of cash on hand and shopping for that new toy.
Perhaps Microsoft will join forces with AT&T and the NSA and turn its efforts toward data mining.
How about allying with someone who's also got something virtual to deliver? Obviously MS could easily just ally with another one of it's arms - for mob appeal they could buy up Flikr, MySpace or YouTube? That gives them their own content - hence a reason to come along, something new and interesting to search... And before you say it, yes there's a lot of dross in those sites, but there are also hidden gems...
See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGuBx6Xj-PE
You can tell that things are really up in the air when long time enemies start making alliances - your enemies enemy is your friend. I say it great to watch them spend billions and squirm around.
Admin tools for Windows
Seriously. Microsoft needs to join with domain squatters. Microsoft could totally dominate the domain squatter portal market by integrating their Live search engine into the domain squatters' Yahoo-like categorized site listings and offers to sell you the domain for $X,XXX.
Wouldn't it make sense for MS to pay more attention to its core products before it goes hunting? There is not a lot of point in catching a big beast when the log cabin is burning down.
I know I would definately BUY vista, if I got like a free trail for AOL. I have been hankering to try that out but cant find those CDs anywhere.
I dunno who to root for.
It is like an episode of Borg vs Species 8472.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Folks:
Anybody that partners with Microsoft is nuts -
Who has ever done it and lived to tell the tale?
M-
I think this is where Microsoft's prior behaviour comes back to haunt them. When Microsoft partners with anyone, it is (from their viewpoint) a short term marriage of convenience to be discarded the moment they think they can make a buck by shafting their "partner". If I had a valuable Internet property, the last thing I would consider is letting Microsoft get its fingers on it. You may think you have good lawyers, but Microsoft has played the game too long.
Doesn't anyonre remember the last portal wars?
They were won by a company that didn't provide a portal, just a simple search service that let people find what they want.
People don't want a "portal"... they just want to find what they are looking for quickly.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Little dirty secret is Microsoft is a large share holder of InterActive Corp (IAC)
.. match.com.. lendingtree.com .. home shopping network ...
IAC owns www.ask.com
Last count, I had 73. I'll send you a copy of one. :-P
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
For starters (and off the top of my head): Intel, IBM, Apple, Sun, Nvidia, Dell. I would include SCO, but they're touch and go.
IBM, Intel, NBC, ...
When it comes to a web portal, Microsoft doesn't need anyone but themselves. They control some 90ish percent of the O/S market, and the default homepage for the default browser is MSN.com. Considering the quantity of internet users who are less than tech-savvy, many just stick with the default settings (or are afraid/don't know how to change them).
but Apple/Microsoft would dominate the market!
to form an axis of evil... software.
And next step will be forced labor camps, where MS software is used to monitor the inmates.
Read radical news here
at least we know for sure they homepage would not be overloaded with activex, and proprietary crappy HTML code... since they dropped IE on Mac.
:P
no seriously. Who cares about these homepage stuff anyway? The first thing I do is put google, whatever portal was there before... (and the day they piss me off, i'll have no problem putting something else as my first page..;)
i know i know.. a lot of people must care about it, or there would not be such a war. But I will never understand advertising nor marketing I guess.
What I want to know is... who uses these damn sites? If portals are so important as a source of revenue, then why did Google - who's original site was stripped of the over-complicated design which marked sites like Yahoo!, MSN and excite - become a dominant market player? Could it be - shock - users don't want to see everything piled into one place and are intelligent enough to get services from different websites? eBay for auctions, BBC/CNN/whoever for news, Google for their search. I certainly never liked those kind of sites and I never heard anyone else who did - except of course, the corporations which ran them.
Bring on AOL! :)
[%] Cingular Ringtones
When I got my machine my homepage was Dell MSN Page
MS has the resources to do it alone, but the real problem is coming up with a gimmick that will capture the web community. That is becoming more and more difficult.
Maybe eBay?
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
...who doesn't actually care?
As long as there is good competition, and I can get decent products/services because of it, I honestly don't care. I am sure plenty of you will disagree, but that's just my take on it.
Don't you just hate it when people reply to your signature?
and nobody came?
I dub thee... Sir Phobos, Knight of Mars, Beater of Ass.
Intel?
Once they finalise bribing their way into universal treacherous computing in the hardware and software market from legislation and 99.999% of the ISPs go along with it.(I am being US centric here of course) when only "approved" hardware and code is allowed on the internet due to "security" and "think of the children" and "must protect valuable entertainment IP" concerns.
The Xbox model was not to give a small team the freedom to create.
The hardware design was done by two guys who don't even work for MS, they work for a joint design and manufacturing company. The software was done in-house, but by a larger team. The Xbox OS is a derivative of (Windows) NT. Additionally, they spent untold dollars buying Bungie, RARE, Oddworld Inhabitants and other companies.
In other words, they largely followed the model you say sucks. They spent a lot of money on acquisitions, only one of which worked out (and even the Bungie Crew is all gone to Wideload and WildTangent now except for Jason Jones). And the kicker, they've so far lost a truckload of money.
It doesn't sound like the right model to me. If the Xbox team ever turns a profit it'll be because Sony are such boneheads, not because of the excellence of the Xbox model.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Even if the poster didn't know about the other M$/eBay article, why would they even post this? Was it just to advertise the crap article that it's linked to, or to generate more flaming comments about M$? Can I get linked to if I submit "As we move into an increasingly digital world, what's next"?
"If you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all"
You should blame the editor instead: the submitter submitted his story probably before the article you refer to was posted and it's always to the editors to fix this kind of things.
I hate it the Slashdot editors don't even care to read their own frontpage!
In need of reliable and affordable server monitoring?
The Justice Department
Yeah, I saw a yard gnome once, it didn't scare me - Space Ghost
Why ally when you can buy? Maybe they'll just buy up, say, EBay , or something.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
It doesn't matter if you lose money in the short term as long as you make money in the long term. Microsoft goal is to increase their market share, NOT to make money at this time. They want to be #1, then the money will come.
IBM or Lenovo, of course !
What exactly is wrong with the MSN site as it stands right now? Yahoo's site is ugly and gimmicky, Google's is VERY clean because their primary function is a search engine, and to get to the "portal" pages you need to drill down to a secondary page. It works for Google's model.
The MSN site is a great balance between the mess that Yahoo's main page is, and the spartan look of Google. It's clean, professional looking, laid out logically, and there is good content there, and it's the default home page on most new PCs. Microsoft shouldn't screw around with a good thing.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
More like, portal siege on the king of the mountain.
I doubt google is going to fire back and it's possible they could win just because they keep doing what they're doing. Between Google and Yahoo!, I'd trust preinstalled Google software over Yahoo!. I just logged out of both Yahoo! and Google Talk. Guess which client popped up an ad on log in?
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
I mean the software won't change at all, but at least we'll all be laughing too hard to notice!
This summary reads like a bad fox reality show.
Will someone please think about Amazon.com?
Amazon.com is shopping hub for millions of people.
Amazon.com has a auction site. Though, they dont push it a much as they should.
Amazon.com has a payment gateway.
Amazon.com owns Alexa.
\
How stupid are people? Don't they know that changing a portal takes about as much effort as changing a TV channel? So Dell preloads Brand X. Who cares? What's the big effen deal?
By the way, what portal do Apples come preloaded with?
He should have asked what pure *software/services* play has ever blah blah. Intel == hardware, IBM == consulting, Apple == hardware, Sun == hardware, Nvidia == hardware, Dell == hardware. MS has repeatedly said they're not interested in hardware, margins are too small for them. There's a long list of dead software companies who crawled into bed with the beast. The next casualty will be Symantec, and possibly McAfee. The sole successful one I can think of is Intuit, but I'd wager that eventually, their bell will toll as well.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
Microsoft will set users to msn.com by default.
If they are capable of competing with the usual suspects, users will have no reason to switch. I anticipate A9-like tactics.
Leonid S. Knyshov
Find me on Quora
Has noone noticed that just a couple of articles below we see that Microsoft is going to acquire Ebay?
That means they will effectively acquire Ebay's partnership agreement with Yahoo as well.
--x
Time to buy it Bill! To make a portal from it's base shouldn't be to much of a hassle...
Free beer is never free as in speech. Free speech is always free as in beer.
Microsoft should do with HP what Google did with Dell.
That is, Microsoft pays HP to make all HP computers installed with Microsoft webware (including desktop related webware). It wouldn't be abusing any monopoly since it wouldn't be using Windows itself to bundle anything (that's not already being bundled). It would merely be Microsoft paying an OEM to get special treatment just like Google did.
I mention HP because HP is bypassing Dell. Currently HP uses hp.netscape.com has the homepage that its computers come configured with, but that's easily changed. So Microsoft and HP create hp.live.com as HP's home page, bundle Microsoft's Desktop Search (which is better than Google's anyway), etc. (Of course, Vista will have desktop search built-in, which may render desktop search competition moot.)
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
eBay and Yahoo, or buy them out. Yahoo already has a good partnership with SBC/AT&T with DSL and Web Portals, and eBay has Paypal and Half.com as well as the main eBay auction site. Yahoo Mail can be merged with Hotmail, Yahoo Groups can be merged with MSN Groups, Yahoo search can be merged with MSN search. If Microsoft does not ally or buy them out, they will end up being enemies later on at the rate they are growing to any portal that Microsoft tries to make.
Then Microsoft can ally up with SBC/AT&T for the ISP service, yet imagine what would happen if Microsoft bought SBC/AT&T?
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Funny that you would list them. Each of them HATE MS. They each have horror stories to tell. But they survived (survive).
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Sounds like something straight out of the Watchmen. Bill Gates is going to start beaming angry psychic paperclips full of pirate story .docs over to Cupertino, but only after nullifying the reality distortion powers of Steve Jobs with...tachyon particles.
Oooh, bad example. Sun lived to tell the tale but MS stabbed them in the back, didn't they? Microsoft promised never to make an alternative to Java when working with Sun, but then they made the Virtual Java Machine.
So, yeah, MS has had some partnerships that were profitable for their partners, but they've also had so many where they screwed over their partners that most every company in the world is wary of dealing with them. Some say that they haven't screwed over Intel, IBM, Dell and a few others simply because they're still useful, but Microsoft will burn them as soon as they're not. True? Well, your guess is as good as mine, but they've done it before.
I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.
Obviously Yahoo!
Satan?
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Why? Because MS as screwed over every single one of it's business partners in one way or another so noone trusts them in any way shape or form.
imagine all anonymous cowards on your side. better yet, imagine beowulf of those.
Who cares? Take the money and run!
[Goes searching for open-source web portal software.]
MS tried to buy Intuit in 1994, but it was blocked since that would have left no competition in the market http://www.lectlaw.com/files/ant08.htm as a mac user of quicken, I thank the feds every time I start cursing Intuit for not doing more for the mac version.
It's safe to say that figments of your imagination don't count.
I have nothing to say.
I looked over Microsofts financial's within the last year, and one thing I remember standing out to me was that, as companies go, they are "aging" into a middle-life company. Profits and growth are levelling out and they just paid their first dividend, for example. This is interesting, given that the company is in a market that wwants to change at the speed of light. Aside from arguments about Monopoly power (which I will gladly make), one has to wonder; are they getting too old to innovate? I don't think they will partner, and I think it's due to corporate "aging;" they're not as creative, they aren't keeping up with the innovators (just look at Vista; it took three years to make this crap?) and are relying more and more on litigation to maintain market share (monopoly). They're out of touch technologically, but they're all tech-high and can't avoid growing old and fizzling out.
I remember looking over Microsoft's financials and thinking, "they're growing old." By this I mean, in a business sense, they're reaching middle-age; they just paid their first divident, per-share profits are levelling out, etc. They've got the stock buyback going on, but that's probably just to make outstanding shares look more valuable. Frankly, I think they're getting old. This results from not innovating as well as their competitors (they like to buy up whatever innovation they can find. And look at their latest original creation, Vista--it took them three years to make this thing and it's crap), and instead of competing are relying more and more on litigation and past success to maintain market share (I like to call this 'monopoly'; you'll find this strategy only works if they engage in illegal or at least unfair market practices; but don't worry, monopolies by their nature don't last). They don't like alliances, so they'll buy anyone who has innovated if Microsoft thinks it will help, rather than partner. But they aren't the sharpest knife in th tech drawer, and will probably rely on their position to perpetuate the market (IE7 search bar). So, no, I'm betting no alliance. But I could be wrong. And hey, I don't even think the whole search-engine-portal-war is worth anything. I think it's a bubble. Someone's gonna get more ad revenue, and that's all.
Its obvious when you think about it.
True, so let's Googlefight it.
The results are pretty conclusive, I'm afraid. Satan is more real than you are - so get thee behind me, TheDreadSlashdotterD. I banish thee to thou foul basement."I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
...companies are aware that there's another profitable option. The rise of Google has broken MS's stranglehold on a lot of markets, just like Firefox and iPod have done in their respective markets.
There's lots of choice for strategic alliances: the aforementioned Google, of course, but also new and renewed players, like AOL. These companies seem to be focused on innovation and user experience to build their user base, rather than the parasitic control consistently exhibited by Microsoft. There's also myriad small companies touting their new technologies every day.
While there's an alternative, nobody's making a deal with the devil.
Apple.
is google+dell partership that threatening to M$?
i mean by just installing google software on dell pcs... which btw have windows already installed on them, how is it in anyway a threat to M$?
http://refdesk.com/
If you can't get there from here it ain't on the web.
It ain't pretty, but it sure is practical.
Either way, they poured a ton of money into them and got virtually nothing for it. They got one or two awful games and nothing else. And even to get those they had to put tons of MS employees on the projects. It's still a condemnation of the model, even if they didn't actually purchase the company outright.
I don't know if they own all of RARE either, they certainly own the portion Nintendo used to own though, which is something like half.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95