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Google, Yahoo, and the Elephant In the Room
CWmike writes "Linda Rosencrance reports that despite assurances from Google and Yahoo that their online advertising deal doesn't need regulatory approval, the two companies should not be too quick to dismiss Microsoft's influence on Capitol Hill. Andrew Frank, an analyst at Gartner, said both Yahoo and Google will benefit from the deal, but he also said Microsoft will do everything in its power to bring the arrangement to a screeching halt. 'Expect Microsoft to challenge it and come back aggressively with some search plans of its own,' he said. Rob Enderle, of the Enderle Group, said Microsoft is a formidable opponent and knows how to play politics. 'Without Microsoft, this probably would stand up to regulatory scrutiny,' Enderle said. 'But Microsoft has increased its presence on Capitol Hill significantly ... and there are restraint of trade issues, so by the nature of Google's size and because Microsoft is going to be pounding on a lot of doors, I think this is going to be a problem.'"
Rob Enderle, of the Enderle Group...
The guy who suggested SCO had a case, spoke at one of their annual meetings. Which put him the company of tech luminaries such as Maureen O'Gara. Seems like he spends the bulk of his time being an "independent" shill for Microsoft. Why do news organizations keep turning to a tool like him for quotes?
How much PR money does it take to wield that much influence over tech media?
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
I am really starting to get annoyed with Yahoo and how they are handling this. They are a beaten company, because they just sat around and did nothing... Google crushed their future business model, and now instead of letting themselves be purchased by what appears the best fit from a competition standpoint, they instead are poisoning it in a number of ways.
I am certainly no fan of MS, but Google definitely needs to stay nervous in my opinion. This will, they will not eventually fall into the same trap that Yahoo did.... The trap of laziness...
Sounds like a classic example of attacking the person rather than what he is saying. I dont know anything about this guy, but just because he was wrong about that doesnt mean he is wrong about this.
Personally, I can see how he has a point. Google and Yahoo control an overwhelming percentage of the market share when combined. Do you really want Google to have no major competitors other than MS? (if you can even count MS as a major competitor in that space, they are pretty small relative to Google) I know everyone likes google around here, but competition is a good thing. Yahoo is/was Google's biggest competitor.
If we had good competition we would see things like advertisers getting better deals and third party websites that host adwords getting a higher percentage. Currently Google's price markup between what they charge advertisers and what they give third party websites is huge.
Im not saying google is an evil company, just that advertisers and adwords customers would benefit greatly if Google had real competition. Yet they keep buying competitors (like doubleclick) or doing deals with companies like Yahoo to effectively remove them from competition.
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Saying that he's been consistently wrong
Remember the old saw about those who do not learn from history.
Now, he MIGHT be correct this time. But also remember that it is possible to get the correct answer with faulty "logic" and false "facts".
Easily. Google will carry Yahoo's ads and Yahoo will carry Google's ads. As an ad buyer, you still have a choice of vendors, with your ads hitting a wider audience. How this a bad thing?
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Sad? That raw money can't buy power?
I call that inspiring.
So Google's subsidizing Yahoo's ad business. Giving crumbs to your competitor to keep him on life support is not a competition.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
The current administration's time is up.
Why, thank you, Captain Obvious. We'd hoped nobody would actually notice the quiet little elections we have going on behind the scenes.
Investigating this kind of deals doesn't seem like too bad a thing; I think there should be more of them, too.
If, however, this deal got sanctioned, while Microsoft's anti-competitive behaviour didn't, then we would have a problem. Please do not create a problem where there is none. Yet.
Ignore this signature. By order.
When a sock puppet like Enderle says something about Microsoft's intentions, it probably came from Microsoft. Whether it's true or not is a separate question.
Get your teeth into a small slice: the cake of liberty
The fallacy is if you attempt to refute the statement by it, as in "this guy lies often. Therefore what he's saying now is a lie."
That's not the same as being doubtful.
Wouldn't it be nice if all Americans had the access to officials that only lobbyists get?
Access is the coin of the politician realm. The "go along to get along" culture means that they're always talking out of every side of their mouth to accommodate every conversation they've had that doesn't get them indicted. So just inserting your point of view into their environment is the key to carrying your point of view into legislation.
Every elected official should be required to fill their calendar from their constituents first, after they schedule meetings with their official staff. They should be allowed to reserve up to 1/3 of their office hours for people outside their constituency. Within those groups, people whose agenda is personal, even if they're the principals of their corporation or organization (eg. on its Board of Directors, shareholder committee, or executive tier) should all get equal access to the official. And every agenda should be published in their calendar, as well as the list of meeting attendees. Except in rare cases of actual national security, which must be confirmed by the relevant security committee in Congress, in order to be kept secret (though not from that oversight committee).
We shouldn't have to wait for the paid corporate reps to get done deciding everything for a gang of figureheads. We're a republic. These people are supposed to represent us every day, not just on the campaign leading up to the Election Day "accountability moment".
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make install -not war