[Macworld]

Post your comments for Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion here

[jamus]

Poor Zimbra. First Yahoo-ized, now likely to become "Exchange LIVE!", "Outlook LIVE!", or some other concoction.
Too bad for Yahoo, but the merger does seem to be one of the only good options for the company.

[DisabledTrucker]

I wonder if this means AT&T also becomes Microsoft? Since SBC, created out of Yahoo, now owns it, which has changed it's name to AT&T since it acquired it. Though I don't see AT&T really wanting to give up Yahoo, with all that means, it would lose it's high speed internet provider, and many customers to go along with it. Unless it has other plans for it's internet services.

EDIT:

Also what does this mean with the partnership between Apple and AT&T? I should also mention I seen this coming when Yahoo incorporated the Windows Live Messenger into Yahoo IM, on top of that and the lack of support for their Yahoo IM app for the Mac. What's going to become of the Widgets now too? Will Microsoft kill off the Apple support for them? Also what about Flickr? All the other apps that Yahoo controls?

Message was edited by: DisabledTrucker

[leicaman]

This is a good move for Microsoft. Since their loss of control of mindshare with IE, and web designers becoming less and less interested in creating IE-only webpages, they have to do something to extend their presence online.
The bad part is this could bifurcate the Internet. Though I suspect that will be good for Google and bad for MicroYahoo.

[Islandgirl]

What would this mean for Mac users whose primary email addresses are with Yahoo? The new Yahoo Mail already says the Safari browser isn't supported, although that doesn't affect me as much because I primarily use Firefox.
But I'd be in trouble if Microsoft eliminated or reduced Yahoo Mail's Mac support. I have nearly 2 GB of email messages stored in my account.

[TxTom]

If Yahoo tries to fight the takeover, it could run them lower on cash, couldn't it? I'm not really into the corporate takeover bit, but it seems that Microsoft has enough in reserve to persevere if they chose to fight it out...
Personally, I hate to see this. Stockholders not withstanding, an independent Yahoo! with Microsoft in third in the search engine/online offerings business is better for the consumers.
But Microsoft has traditionally eliminated competition by underpricing their own offerings until the competitor is beaten (Netscape comes to mind) or simply buying them up.
Bad for the consumer.

[TxTom]

SBC is not owned by Yahoo and Yahoo is not owned by SBC/ATT.

The email system that is branded Yahoo/ATT is a collaboration that allows ATT to forego maintaining an email system on their broadband networks while it gives Yahoo a target audience for their online services. It's a partnership between two completely independent companies.

A MicroHoo! would probably have this collaboration end eventually.

[tallscot]

Yahoo is losing revenue because it's ad business model sucks. You pay a monthly fee to have a listing whether anyone sees it or not (most do not).
Google, on the other hand, serves up your ad on thousands (millions?) of Web pages through partners and it also serves up your ad when someone uses Google Search. You only pay if your ad is clicked on. That is huge right there.
They also have wonderful tools for you to analyze your ad and to create different ads and analyze which version gets the most traffic. It's very cool.
So from an actual customer's point of view, Google is superior.
How is this going to change under Microsoft? I don't think it will.

[MorrisTheCat]

Islandgirl said:

What would this mean for Mac users whose primary email addresses are with Yahoo? The new Yahoo Mail already says the Safari browser isn't supported, although that doesn't affect me as much because I primarily use Firefox.
But I'd be in trouble if Microsoft eliminated or reduced Yahoo Mail's Mac support. I have nearly 2 GB of email messages stored in my account.

It may be painful, but set yourself up on a Gmail account and begin to slowly migrate your important messages over when you have time. And, according to the article, you do have some time for this. It's not like MS is taking over tomorrow and there will be trouble.
My suggestion above is only as a backup/precaution. Personally, I don't believe MS is stupid enough to cut off Mac users from Yahoo mail accounts. It would make no business sense. They're going to want to entice customers, not drive them away. Still, I understand your concern. My wife and I have a Yahoo account we both use, and we've been talking about moving it to a Gmail account for a while now. Seems like now is the time to start looking at this more seriously.

[Damn_Its_Hot]

The market for online advertising is increasingly dominated by one player, Microsoft said...
And they want it to be them!
jOhn

[joshuawait]

I never ceased to be amazed by the changes in the technology field. Who would have thought--just a few years ago--that Yahoo! would be struggling or that Microsoft would feel a need to make such a dramatic offering?

That said, the show isn't over. Yahoo! could, like Apple did, refuse to be bought out, turn itself around, and offer amazing new products. Or, it could simply become yet another unit in Microsoft Borg. Popcorn anyone?

[lwdesign]

The market for online advertising is increasingly dominated by one player, Microsoft said, and merging with Yahoo will allow it to offer a competitive alternative...
"The combination of these two great teams would enable us to jointly deliver a broad range of new experiences to our customers that neither of us would have achieved on our own," said Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft, in a statement.
=========
Oh boy! Microsoft is really doing a PR spin on how altruistic they are about offering choice in online advertising!! God knows MS should be concerned about someone else having a monopoly on anything. DON'T DO IT YAHOO! Microsoft already has an overwhelming domination of the OS market and owns or controls half the planet, major news networks (MSNBC), etc. It's so nice of them to be thinking about how all us average mortals should be offered more choice in online advertising because someone else controls the majority of it (Google). --Snort!-- What a bunch of posturing. Why the lame "we're out for your own good" when it's obvious that MS is just trying to ram home another plot for world domination?

[mr_josh]

Islandgirl said:

What would this mean for Mac users whose primary email addresses are with Yahoo? The new Yahoo Mail already says the Safari browser isn't supported, although that doesn't affect me as much because I primarily use Firefox.
But I'd be in trouble if Microsoft eliminated or reduced Yahoo Mail's Mac support. I have nearly 2 GB of email messages stored in my account.

I'm not going to call you foolish for that, but you do realize that major mail services have no obligation to you to keep your mail. This means that when Yahoo has a data loss scenario (something that has happened and will happen again), your messages are gone and they owe you nothing for it. Please, please please please back up your data, people. Not just from your local storage, but from your remote storage, too. Data loss happens, not just in your machine, but other peoples' hardware, too.

[jamus]

Yep, goodbye Flickr... hello Flickr LIVE! Goodbye, Konfabul.. uh Widgets... hello Sidebar Gadgets. Goodbye Yahoo login... hello Windows Passport/LIVE ID.

And don't forget a large topping of Silverlight shoved in for good measure.

Aaaah, change is a wacky thing. ;