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Was the Yahoo-Google Deal a Ploy To Weaken Yahoo?
JagsLive writes with a link to a BetaNews story about a US Senator who is questioning whether the deal between Yahoo and Google was brokered with less than honorable intentions on Google's part. The advertising deal came under scrutiny from the Department of Justice recently for potential antitrust violations. The deal has now been delayed in order to allow investigators more time for evaluation. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that Yahoo will cut as much as 20% of its workforce after an internal memo from CEO Jerry Yang called for "discipline" and said the company was "getting fit" for the long term. For their part, Google has launched a site endorsing the deal and attempting to smooth the way for its approval by providing facts and positive reactions from experts.
the entire article/summary is just flamebait tbh. from TFA
In addition, the agreement is non-exclusive, meaning Yahoo could make a similar deal with another company
how can a non-exclusive deal weaken yahoo, they can choose to use a different provider or thier own ads at any point?
It CAN weaken them, but so can any deal.
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
Google is a publicly traded company and as such it's only obligation is to it's shareholders.
Few companies set out to do bad deeds but most won't rule them out. Google was supposed to be different. Regarding "Don't be evil"(tm), CEO Eric Schmidt recently clarified the policy saying that it was simply meant as a conversation starter.
Here's Google from good to bad...
+7.1 - Philanthropy
Creating a foundation to fight poverty.
+5.3 - Coddling staff
Establishing on-site day care as an employee perk.
-2.4 - Moral Triage
Giving Brazilian police access to private photo albums on Orkut to assist an investigation into child pornography.The lesser of two evils is still pretty lame
-4.8 - Immaturity
Google's on going smear campaign against Privacy International for giving them a last place rank.
-6.7 - Screwing staff
Raising cost of on site day care to $57,000 per year.
-8.3 - Censorship
Instituting keyword filters at the request of the Chinese government. Google's do no evil policy only applies to the U.S.
Source: Wired 16.10
Other than furthering Google's market cap on internet advertising and pushing them closer to a practical monopoly (there will always be competition, but none that really competes on any large scale), is that really a problem? Yahoo's page views won't change at all, and chances are that $googleAdSenseRevenue > ($yahooAdSales - $yahooAdSalesOverhead - $yahooAdPayouts). If AdSense keeps the rest of the internet afloat, why should Yahoo have to feel left out?
Truth be told, having a "Google Custom Search" logo in the Yahoo search box might do a bit of harm to branding, but most of the people using Yahoo are using it as a home page (sports, weather, news) rather than primarily as a search engine. In my limited observations, at least. If Google made their iGoogle pages a bit more obvious, they could probably have Yahoo dead within a week.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
No, but it does change their place in the market. Yahoo goes from being a search, ad, and content provider to solely a content provider (one which, like the rest of the internet, uses AdSense as its primary source of income). Not only does it strengthen both companies, but it lowers the hostility between them - Google gets to focus on search and ad targeting, and Yahoo gets to focus on gaudy design to wrap around information aggregated from other sources (again, like the rest of the internet).
It just so happens that Yahoo, as the #1 site on the internet (not sure on the metric, probably time spent there per day, as I expect google would beat them on uniques), tends to do this a lot more effectively than anyone else, and as such is able to bring in a lot more money with AdSense than anyone else.
However, judging by the comments here, they seem to be losing their enthusiasm! just! a! bit!
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
Considering that the Yahoo-Google would never have happened if the Microsoft didn't try to buy up Yahoo, I don't see how Google can be blamed. Microsoft has a history of buying companies (E.g. Stak-r, Hotmail, etc) in order to rip out it's old technology, replace it with Microsoft technology, ultimately becoming Microsoft. Yahoo succeeded precisely because they were not Microsoft, so if Microsoft did absorb Yahoo, it would have destroyed it. Some speculate that it might have ultimately destroyed Microsoft too, since it would be a huge distraction away from their OS product line (which is the one that is actually making money).
Neither deal was good for Yahoo (or the general public), but the stupid "hostile takeover" rules in the US gave Yahoo no other choice than to pick the lesser of two evils.
since when truth became flamebait ?
the woman CONFESSED in front of a senate committee for god's sakes. she said 'i made a mistake'. they asked, how many times, she said FORTY.
leave aside being flamebait, this explains how big a joke department of justice is, and what motives it has for accusing google with undermining yahoo.
ill wake you up -> microsoft.
Read radical news here
Yahoo is primarily a content company nowadays. Sure, people use their search, but their other products are the popular ones. If the advertising deal were to go through and become stronger, Google would no longer be a competitor but then a partner. Both companies would have an incentive to work harder with each other, and both would benefit. It's win-win.
Or they could take the other direction and use the new money coming in to step up development on their own competing products and try to make them actually competitive.
This deal is good for Yahoo because it opens up options. More funding + more options = good.
I don't believe Yahoo is going to be exclusively running Google ads. I heard from someone who works for Yahoo that this deal helps them by supplementing their own ads in related to searching. Apparently Google has more granularity in their ability to target ads at certain groups of people. Ones that Yahoo may not have the right ads they'd be interested in to begin with.