|
|
 Fri Feb 01, 2008 21:59 pm Microsoft to buy Yahoo? |
|
|
| Torsten wrote: | Hi,
It's just been announced that Mircrosoft is seeking to purchase Yahoo for $44.6 billion in cash and stock.
What impact do you think will the deal have if it goes through? |
My first reaction is to say "Oh, my God!"
If MS manages to make Yahoo's search engine as effective as the explanations for the problems and questions that arise in Windows, then there is no hope for Yahoo. 
.
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English |
|
Yankee
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 7465
Location: Northeast US
|
|
| Fri Feb 01, 2008 23:35 pm Microsoft to buy Yahoo? |
|
|
Hi, Amy
People started to mistrust Microsoft after it had released Windows 95/98/ME which are of such a low security level that any application can take complete control over the whole computer (on purpose or by accident, e.g. a program with bugs). This is the main cause of constant crashes of those OSs (I think you're familiar with the blue screen of death  ) But now the things have changed a lot - Microsoft's software (including new versions of Windows) is of high quality (I myself have not experienced any problems with Windows 2003/2008 whatsoever). As to documentation, Microsoft provides users with a big knowledge base (try msdn2.microsoft.com) where you can find answers to many questions.
I believe Microsoft will take good care of Yahoo.
As a programmer, I also ardently support Microsoft's monopoly on the computer market, because if everyone steered the boat of computer standarts (i.e. though up their own software, like OSs, web browsers), we would have big problems with compatibility and I would have to know much more things. For example, it's really a pain in the neck to write a site which would support FireFox along with Internet Explorer - there're lots of differences in the architecture of both browsers. Thank God Microsoft is the leader and most people use Windows instead of Linux
BTW, you can download free trial versions of Windows 2003/2008 and check them out for yourself
_________________
Alex
A native speaker of Russian
 |
|
lost_soul
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 1744
Location: South Park, Colorado, USA
|
 |
|
michauek
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 29 Apr 2007
Posts: 120
Location: Poland
|
|
| Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:23 am Microsoft to buy Yahoo? |
|
|
Yes, I still have sleepless nights just thinking about those "fatal error" messages. 
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English |
|
Yankee
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 7465
Location: Northeast US
|
|
| Sat Feb 02, 2008 11:59 am Microsoft to buy Yahoo? |
|
|
Microsoft is trying to buy Yahoo because they both want to increase their market share in the online advertising market. In 2007 more than $40 billion were spent in this industry and this number is going to double within the next 3 years. Google is the uncontested market leader in both Internet search and contextualized advertising. Microsoft and Yahoo are having a hard time catching up with Google's success and that's why they decided to join forces. I don't think their strategy will work because in the online world size is by far not the most important ingredient. Bill Gates himself said in his book "The Road Ahead": "In the online world it's not big companies eating small ones but fast companies eating slow ones." Microsoft and Yahoo have been rather slow when it comes to developing their advertising services. As it stands, Google's AdWords program pretty much rules.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary |
|
Torsten
Site Admin
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
Posts: 6726
Location: EU
|
|
| Sat Feb 02, 2008 13:02 pm Microsoft to buy Yahoo? |
|
|
| Torsten wrote: | | "In the online world it's not big companies eating small ones but fast companies eating slow ones." Microsoft and Yahoo have been rather slow when it comes to developing their advertising services. As it stands, Google's AdWords program pretty much rules. |
Our daily newspaper reported this morning that this is exactly that what Microsoft and Yahoo are willing to change. It might be intersting to see whether they gain success.
Additional it seems a good point of time as the stocks of Yahoo are at a low level. |
|
Fan of Arabian horses
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 20 Apr 2006
Posts: 816
|
|
| Sat Feb 02, 2008 18:01 pm Microsoft to buy Yahoo? |
|
|
I agree with Torsten, Microsoft was leading the software market in the beginning of the computer ages and quite conquered Internet provider service market (hotmail, MSN) . And undoubtedly, Yahoo was the biggest contestant in mailing provider and search engine service . However, after Google was developed, Its gradually moved Yahoo in internet service.In addition, Google came out with an Idea to provided the "free software download" that comparable to Microsoft Office this lately. So in my opinion, this acquisition ambition is a continuation strategy of the Microsoft to beat Google.
Beside vying for the market purpose, I learned that Microsoft's ambition to acquire Yahoo is strongly related to the drop of approximately 3% of the Microsoft's share while Yahoo has successfully increased the share up to 60%. While the Share of the Google steadily increased in this past few years.
At this moment we all in doubt that Yahoo will accept Microsoft bid. But if Yahoo accept it, Do you think they can together can beat Google?
Some people may say yes, the combination of Yahoo and can force down Google because they can combine their experting. But I don't think so. In my opinion, the merge will not bring any detriment effect on Google. Since Google is always more innovative and creative. As simple example, just click on their website, and we can notice Google have more friendly user interface yet offer a dozen of the free services. While Yahoo and MSN perhaps just provided the "traditional internet service".
Herry |
|
BelajarEnglish
I'm new here and I like it ;-)
Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 41
Location: Australia
|
|
| Sun Feb 03, 2008 3:36 am Microsoft to buy Yahoo? |
|
|
| lost_soul wrote: | | As to documentation, Microsoft provides users with a big knowledge base (try msdn2.microsoft.com) where you can find answers to many questions. |
Sure, but the search engine to actually FIND that documentation is a horrible mess. This week I tried to get simple information on the features in a recently released product, and the site regurgitated up all kinds of obscure, complex, arcane information that was completely irrelevant to what I was looking for, no matter what kind of search phrase I used. The few times it came close, it gave me vague information about an 8-year-old release, rather than the current one I had explicitly named in my search. If that's how they'll handle Yahoo, it's dead.
Microsoft got as big as it is not through innovation or by putting out good products, but through illegal trade practices and by strangling innovative competition and stealing their ideas. Another strategy has been to design deliberate incompatibilities into their software, so that people using browsers and other programs that conform to universal standards will have chronic trouble with various websites and programs. My ISP is a joint venture between Yahoo and my phone company, and since I don't normally use Windows, I expect that if Microsoft takes over Yahoo I'll lose access to increasing numbers of features as Microsoft engineers incompatibilities into the system.
Months before the Yahoo bid was announced, the American business press was criticizing Microsoft for trying to get into ancillary businesses, like ad sales, when they had taken forever to release an updated operating system and still put it out buggy. In other words, they say Microsoft can't get its core business right, but it reaches its tentacles out to businesses it doesn't know.
Personally, Alex, I'm glad Microsoft doesn't have a complete monopoly on the software world, because I'd probably give up computers. I always used to have a Mac desktop machine and a Windows laptop. When I was almost in the market for a new laptop, I helped an inexperienced friend choose a nice Windows laptop. It ran great, and we were very happy, but two weeks after she got it, the thing was so infested with viruses and spyware that the best programs couldn't clean it out. I had to wipe the hard drive clean and start over, but of course some of the viruses stay on the disk. For three years, neither I nor professional computer repair experts have ever gotten the thing running fast again. At the same time, a programmer friend lost partial use of one of his Windows computers because a browser hijacker took over Internet Explorer. He was never able to get the virus out of the system without a complete hard drive wipe. Then his other laptop got disabled by a virus that lurked on his drive waiting for him to install Service Pack 2. The time my friends and I have wasted on maintenance of this sort makes a Windows PC just too expensive, and my next laptop wound up being a Mac. I run Windows only in emulation, under carefully controlled conditions.
So, Alex, there are big disadvantages to Microsoft having a quasi-monopoly on anything.
Here is a page with some fun ads comparing Macintoshes and PCs. Particularly fun are the ads PR Lady and Security.
http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/ |
|
Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 4230
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
|
|
| Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:04 am Microsoft to buy Yahoo? |
|
|
Bill gates is the richest in the world and now he wants to dominate Yahoo!..
No way, Jerry Yang is better than Bill Gates...!
_________________
I can eat 5 plates of chicken rice at 1 go...! |
|
NS
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 135
Location: Singapore
|
|
| Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:37 am Microsoft to buy Yahoo? |
|
|
| Jamie (K) wrote: | | It ran great, and we were very happy, but two weeks after she got it, the thing was so infested with viruses and spyware that the best programs couldn't clean it out. I had to wipe the hard drive clean and start over, but of course some of the viruses stay on the disk. For three years, neither I nor professional computer repair experts have ever gotten the thing running fast again. |
Hi, Jamie
I don't know what version if IE she was using at that moment, but nowadays versions of the IE browser (!! if PROPERLY configured !!) will not let the active content of any site execute on its own (there're lots of fine-tuning switches in the tools->internet options), you can even tell your IE to execute only signed active controls (signed by certificates that you trust, and noone can counterfeit that signature - believe me - they're impossible to crack). It goes without saying that if you allow ANY active content to execute with no restriction, it might come from programmers-idiots who programmed it to install spyware, or, to add insult to injury, ruin your HDD. That's why you need to pay much heed to those IE settings before starting browsing suspicious sites which can harbor malicious software.
If I were in your friend's shoes, I'd reinstall the operating system - it will restore the lost agility of her computer
_________________
Alex
A native speaker of Russian
|
|
lost_soul
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 1744
Location: South Park, Colorado, USA
|
|
| Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:44 pm Microsoft to buy Yahoo? |
|
|
| lost_soul wrote: | | I don't know what version if IE she was using at that moment, but nowadays versions of the IE browser (!! if PROPERLY configured !!) will not let the active content of any site execute on its own (there're lots of fine-tuning switches in the tools->internet options), you can even tell your IE to execute only signed active controls (signed by certificates that you trust, and noone can counterfeit that signature - believe me - they're impossible to crack). It goes without saying that if you allow ANY active content to execute with no restriction, it might come from programmers-idiots who programmed it to install spyware, or, to add insult to injury, ruin your HDD. That's why you need to pay much heed to those IE settings before starting browsing suspicious sites which can harbor malicious software. |
Like a true programmer, you're missing my point.
To do all this configuring properly, a lay person would have to read a fat manual on how to configure Internet Explorer. Most people who have to use a computer don't have major time to get an extensive technical education and then go into the guts of the operating system and all the programs just to set a bunch of security crap. And they shouldn't have to! And even doing all the maintenance -- if it's done the way Microsoft and the average programmer with a Microsoft fetish say it should be done -- is a major, useless intrusion on the user's time. The fact that it's even necessary shows that the software is poorly created, and it's better for a lay person to use a competing system that works well without requiring all that maintenance.
There used to be an advertisement on TV that says the whole thing in a nutshell: "If technology doesn't work for people, it doesn't work."
And programmers are not people.
| lost_soul wrote: | | If I were in your friend's shoes, I'd reinstall the operating system - it will restore the lost agility of her computer |
Believe me, I did that, and it didn't. I wiped the whole hard drive clean, and I started completely from scratch. The computer still ran badly and got worse. Part of that is because some viruses are designed to remain on the hard drive even after it has been wiped and during a clean reinstall. The second problem has nothing to do with viruses: Windows automatically starts turning on a lot of needless little programs in the background that one by one start hogging all your ram and processing time until your modern machine is as slow as a 486. You have to go into your settings and shut them all off, but first someone has to tell you that it needs to be done, because you can be quite sure that no user manual ever explains that Windows does mischief like that. And once you've shut those programs off, little by little Windows starts turning them on again. A local computer repairman tells us that 60% of his business involves people who are ready to throw out their computers and buy new ones just because of this particular nuisance.
Anyone who thinks that this is just "part of the game", that Windows is a well-designed operating system, and that all this wasted time is worthwhile, is deluded and probably has a Microsoft fetish. |
|
Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 4230
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
|
|
| Mon Feb 04, 2008 14:03 pm Microsoft to buy Yahoo? |
|
|
Google weighs in:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080204/microsoft_google.html
The article contains what I consider to be a fair understanding of the issue:
| Quote: | Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft has been trying to depict a Yahoo takeover as a boon for both advertisers and consumers because the two companies together would be able to compete against Google more effectively.
But Google is painting a starkly different picture, asserting that Microsoft will be able to stifle innovation and leverage its dominating Windows operating system to set up personal computers so consumers are automatically steered to online services, such as e-mail and instant messaging, controlled by the world's largest software maker. |
I tend to agree with Google on this one. |
|
Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 4230
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
|
|
|
| I want to talk about my country Georgia and show some pictures | my travelling experience |
Microsoft grown up. I'm not worried about anything they do now.