Yahoosoft – Sound and fury signifying…?
So I wake up this morning and open my online copy of the Wall Street Journal (what? It could happen) and what do I see? Speculative merger talks between Microsoft and Yahoo. Apparently, Microsoft is driving these discussions and pushing the negotiations forward for a joint company.
Now colour me skeptical, but I imagine that everyone’s favourite runner-up in online search marketing and nobody’s favourite software tyrant would make unlikely bedmates. Microsoft, king of the schoolyard until Google moved into town and stole all his friends, hasn’t a hope of recouping lost ground alone while Yahoo, bearing a much stronger online presence, has much to gain from a merger. On the surface, each company compliments one another and makes up for the other’s lack. Seems like a match made in anti-trust heaven.
But would this new super company really be able to compete with Google?
Microsoft has its Xbox gaming station and Office software. Yahoo has its affiliate marketing program and impossible to decipher search algorithm. But so what?
I’ve seen the arguments for gained market share. I’ve read the reports for target demographics and brand awareness each firm caters to. And I’m left wondering, “does Google even care?”
Google owns 65% of the market. Microsoft and Yahoo combined would have 27%. I’m no match whiz, but isn’t that still way less than half of what Google has already? Sure, one can argue that Yahoosoft (or Microhoo, whichever you prefer) would be able to launch a stronger search marketing program, and that the potential for new product launching and online reach would be intensified. But is it really at a Google level? I’d have to say no.
$50 billion is a huge investment to simply solidify a distant second-place. Maybe instead of adding twice small potatoes, Yahoosoft strategists should focus on areas Google’s ignoring. Of course, Google seems to ignore so little these days that my suggestion might prove an exercise in futility (that actually makes a good company slogan – Yahoosoft: An Exercise in Futility), but it’s a better plan than trying to compete with Google on their level. If you can’t beat ‘em, find a new niche.
How about a series of vertical search engines that produce relevant results under 10,000 hits? Or a brand spanking new social network? Or a device that delivers technological convergence instead of just delivering false promises – something that provides the user with the portability of a handheld device, the power of a computer, the escape of a high-end gaming system and the mindlessness of television?
And while everyone’s looking at how Yahoosoft would compete against Google, what about Apple? The little Mac daddy that’s dancing circles around Microsoft, with music blaring from a stylish iPod video? Maybe there’s room to maneuver in that market as well, if and only if Yahoosoft don’t start dreaming that they can dethrone the mighty Google. After all, if Yahoosoft might come to be, what’s to stop two other companies from forming Googapple?
