About Steve Stroh

Microsoft Acquiring Yahoo! - My Thoughts

Microsoft plus Yahoo! does not even come close to equaling Google. That's the situation in a nutshell.

I've used Microsoft products since the early days of DOS. I've used their online products such as Hotmail and MSN Search (which I think is laughably inferior to Google's). Those, and the few other Microsoft online products that I've tried just underwhelm me. I think that's because Microsoft is loathe to endanger their monopoly position in PC software, especially operating systems and applications by making online products that are truly competitive to their monopoly position in PC operating systems and applications software.

Yahoo!'s products irritate me because of their insistence on my surrendering (way too much, in my opinion) personal information. Yahoo!'s search capability is also inferior to Google's.

Google, on the other hand, offers very solid, good, online products, as full featured as possible, for free, with an absolute minimum of hassle and intrusive surrender of personal information. (That's not to say that they haven't gathered an astonishing and disappointingly large amount of personal information, but they gleaned that - they didn't require me to surrender it proactively like Yahoo! does.)

I don't think either Microsoft or Yahoo! really understands what the draw for ordinary Internet users to prefer Google. Google gives you a lot, Google doesn't get in your way, Google doesn't treat you like a resource to be strip-mined, Google doesn't proactively irritate you... etc.

If Microsoft does succeed in acquiring Yahoo!, that will just make things worse. At least Yahoo! is a founding member of the Internet culture and has some sense of cooperation; Microsoft is a convicted monopolist and seems intent on extending their monopoly practices to the Internet. But it's a level playing field on the Internet, and with choices as stark as Google's and Microsoft's respective approaches to customers, Microsoft loses.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2008 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).

This Is My General, Professional "Comments" Blog

For a long time I've resisted offering "general" commentary on my various blogs. I personally have little use for a "stream of consciousness" ramble on a blog that I pay attention to for a specific subject. But there's times when... well... you just gotta say somethin' about a subject that doesn't fit into the subjects I write about in my various blogs. So... I'll do so here.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2008 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).