On 2/1/08, Darrin Chandler wrote: > On Fri, Feb 01, 2008 at 05:32:51PM -0700, Alan Dayley wrote: > > General prognostications: > > - After some discussion and hand waving about monopolies and too much > > power in one company, the deal will be approved. > > - Yahoo employees will be applying to Google and any other place even > > faster than they are already. > > - Yahoo sign-in will be migrated to MS Passport or whatever they call it > > now days. With an Active-X control. Which is when I would HAVE to say > > goodbye to Flickr. > > - The Yahoo name will be kept but the guts methodically morphed to the > > "try to please everyone just like MSN doesn't" design goal. > > - Flickr and Yahoo Mail will be integrated into the new MS Office Live > > service to begin loosing relevance rapidly. > > - In three years MS will have molded it all into the MS plain yogurt > > such that the Yahoo name will be only an historical footnote like Hotmail. > > Pretty much what I was thinking. I hadn't thought about the Passport > thing, but I suspect you're dead on. > > In any case, neither MS nor Yahoo has been able to win out against > Google separately. I don't see any magic synergy thing happening that > will change that. Worse, Yahoo could take a chance and do wacky > interesting things. I'm pretty sure MS will squash that, given some > time. I'd have to agree with you both... I expect M$ to exploit Yahoo's user base to gain new 'long-term committed users' by way of their much celebrated *screw the user gently* management techniques. They will probably use all the tactics described above and then some. I would say that in the 5-year interval, Google's consumer-facing services will ultimately win out. I have some experience using their APIs and they are well designed, well documented, well supported, etc. And there have been a number of interesting developments lately. M$ has a solid record of losing every play they make in this realm. They will most likely continue with their strategy of trying to co-opt ( EEE ) various web standards, lose at it, and bleed money. In addition- Google is advancing on their flanks with their web-based Office competitor. Needless to say, I'm bearish on MSFT. > > I'll be holding onto my Google stock, thank you very much. ;-) Even though Google may be set for growth, their stock is still overvalued. I tend to think we are about to see a cycle where all asset classes return to strict fundamentals. -jmz -- --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss