Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are still getting plenty of attention, despite the apparent finality of recent decisions to end talks between Y&M and to start a search advertising deal with G&Y. Once again, we’ve herded together some of the best and most insightful stories to give you the big picture. Think of it as an extended Linky Goodness with editor’s commentary—you know, like a special feature on your daily DVD of marketing news. Moving right along. . . .
Curious to know what the rest of the industry thinks about it? Former Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone weighs in, with coverage by MediaPost:
“I think I’m one of the few people who views this as a positive for Yahoo,” Lanzone said. “I don’t know the exact terms, of course, but it seems like all upside.” He acknowledged that his positive bias stemmed largely from having seen the benefits of a similar paid search partnership during his 7-year tenure with Ask.
Yes, but this is coming from the same company that has long maintained it’s not looking to beat Google, but to just steal and keep a small portion of the search market. I don’t think that was Yahoo’s goal (though it may be now.)
Lanzone also predicted tough times for Microsoft:
“Microsoft’s issues all stem from query volume–not the monetization side,” Lanzone said. “They don’t have a lot of ammo in this fight, beyond IE (Internet Explorer) and however they can leverage that. But I don’t see how this deal really changes that.”
The article also features insightful commentary from Didit’s Kevin Lee.
BoomTown/AllThingsD says things are looking pretty grim for Chief Yahoo Jerry Yang. With very vocal opposition to his continued leadership, the August 1 shareholder meeting may well end with Yang out of a job. Kara Swisher looks at all the possibilities for his replacement, from Susan Decker to Meg Whitman to Mark Cuban (seriously) to Marc Andreessen.
Finally, Google continues to maintain that their deal with Yahoo will face no opposition from regulators—and now they’ll even admit that the deal may be beneficial to Yahoo.
Let me see that logic again. You made a deal with a company that sees itself as your (struggling) archrival to provide a core money-making business and increase both of your profits, and you’re just now figuring out that it might help them, too? So Google made this deal on the assumption that cooperating with their next-largest-competitor-in-the-US would hurt them. Yeah, sounds like something the DOJ rubber stamps every day.
Reuters reports from South Korea:
“In the case of Yahoo, the company believes that it will be beneficial to assist Yahoo with its experiment,” [Vinton] Cerf [vice president and chief Internet evangelist at Google] told a press event on the sidelines of the OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy.
Ah, benevolence. The driving force in all interactions, especially economic ones.
Wait, what? Self-interest? Nah. Not Google.
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