Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Microsoft & Yahoo : Skip the dating, get married, and think Social

Search is only one component. Want to seriously threat Google. Think Social now.

My Quick thoughts on the Yahoo / Microsoft Deal.

So now that the Microsoft / Yahoo search deal been announced. The deal combines the No. 2 and No. 3 players in Search. Now what? Ok, I get it, Microsoft’s Core competency is technology and not media, and Yahoo core is Media, not technology. They both compliment each other and it makes for a good partnership, but so what.

Fact is that Google has a dominant position in search and this partnership will not change this position one bit. But is it really about search, and should Google be concerned? Yes, Google absolutely should be concerned.

I do not buy that Yahoo and Microsoft are fully committed to this deal if it restricted them from using the user data outside of just optimizing the search platform. It’s so much more about search but a very good first step.

If the vision of this relationship was only about search, than game over. Google Wins.

How does Microsoft win?

Microsoft needs to marry Yahoo. They can date for now, but need to marry and get serious as long as they get the blessings of the Department of Justice.

Microsoft needs the social component to plug into their platform. Microsoft should be aggressively pursuing Facebook now. Social Data is incredibly vital and a real threat to Google.

You take Eyeballs, Social Data, Search Data, content, Technology and world class sales, you just very well may have the holy grail and perhaps a Google Killer, or at least a very attractive alternative that will cause Google incredible pain.

Thoughts?

1 comment:

Dad Blog said...

I think Microsoft and Yahoo is a great thing. I do think though that Google is going to be kicking butt with all their online stuff their doing like databases, stuff for websites etc.

You are right when it comes to social networking, if Microsoft gets in before Google that would make competition even much better.