Dethroning Google
By Charles Miller

This week I received an email from the editor of Atención querying me about the subject of the recent merger proposal between Microsoft and Yahoo, and the possible consequences.

In truth, I do not know enough about the merger proposal to have an informed opinion yet. Therefore, this column is not going to be an attempt to influence anyone in either direction, just a look at what I see so far.

The motivation for the merger is simple. An increasing share of ad budgets worldwide are going to internet-based advertising. Yahoo is rated second and Microsoft third in internet advertising revenues, depending on whose figures you believe. Both are strongly motivated to find ways to dethrone Google as the current market leader. A marriage between #2 and #3 market leaders automatically creates a viable competitor to #1 Google. Let us look specifically at some pros and cons.

A big plus to come out of a merger is the promise of better infrastructure. Yahoo has been less than reliable, and Hotmail is not any better. The combined company would hopefully have a technologically stronger physical infrastructure.

That could just as easily turn into a negative if customer service fails to improve. A frequently heard complaint against both Microsoft and Yahoo is the difficulty accessing support services. If you are a user of any of the free services offered by Microsoft or Yahoo, customer support is basically nonexistent.

A plus might be ironing out the incompatibilities between Yahoo and Microsoft applications. Things like email, calendar, and photo applications have never worked well together between Yahoo and Microsoft. Perhaps after a merger they would.

A con is almost certainly to be websites and services that are sure to disappear after a merger. The combined companies would include a large number of redundant services. Right now Yahoo Finance and MSN Money are competitors in their market. After a merger one of these is going to go away, and that is sure to leave a lot of users, who chose one over the other, being unhappy when their account is suddenly moved to the other service they did not like to begin with. Let us also hope the merged company is careful about how it merges its customer’s confidential personal data.

A pro could be better price competition in the advertising market resulting in savings for the consumer. Businesses advertise their products and services via Google AdWords, and the price they pay for this has gone up a lot over the years. The hope is that a merger of Microsoft and Yahoo could create real competition in the realm of internet advertising.

A most definite con would be what I see as the end of Yahoo’s openness. Yahoo has opened its programs and encouraged independent developers to corroborate and innovate. Microsoft on the other hand has always been closed and secretive about its source code. Have no doubt that Microsoft is not going to open up its source code to anyone, and the aftermath of any merger would be Yahoo adopting that company line as well.

Finally, and I am unsure if it is a pro or con, there is the subject of passwords and online security. Microsoft’s Net Passport together with Yahoo’s password system could potentially give the average computer one place to keep all their passwords.Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.