06 Apr 08 Yahoo Takeover

Microsoft is up to its usual game.

Find a target, try to take it over. If it doesn’t happen peacefully, then use bullying tactics.

Microsoft feels threatened by Google right now.

Microsoft has never been an innovator; they’ve always bought or loosely copied what they want to get to market. That goes right back to MS-DOS days.

Microsoft still effectively have a licence to print money with their Windows Operating System, and MS-Office. This has largely come about due to deals with PC manufacturers and dealers, not because Windows or other Microsoft products are particularly superior in any way.

Microsoft has sold around 500 million Office licenses to date.

It’s $400 price tag means it’s largely aimed at the corporate world. The average home buyer certainly can’t afford or justify that kind of layout; they probably only paid about that for the PC itself these days.

I’ve already said that I use Google products in preference. They’re free, yes, but more importantly, they do what I want, and I can access my documents anywhere there’s an Internet connected machine. I did download the latest MS-Office 2007 trial recently. Even on my Dual core AMD CPU equipped PC with 4GB RAM it wasn’t fast, and downright slow at times. I deliberately installed all the bells and whistles, and stuff like Plaxo and LinkedIn add-ins.

Well, with my Google Docs/Gmail/Remember The Milk set up, along with online access to Plaxo and LinkedIn I can do all that I need to do anyway.

So it’s people like me that are the real threat to Microsoft. Heck, I can do all that I do with my set up above without even using Windows, and I don’t on my laptop, which runs Ubuntu, and two of my desktops here.

Yahoo lost it’s way some time back. They tried offering more online apps, such as Yahoo Answers, and Yahoo 360, while Google went quietly ahead and developed very good search algorithms.

So Microsoft want to take over Yahoo, so they can somehow get a greater online presence. I do recall some time back that Gates said the Internet wouldn’t catch on. Ho Hum.