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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
...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?
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
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?
Satan?
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."