Google says Microsoft buying Yahoo might hurt Internet

“Google Inc , the world’s leading search engine, said on Monday it was concerned about the free flow of information on the Internet if Microsoft Corp were to succeed in acquiring Yahoo Inc,” Kirby Chien reports for Reuters

“‘We would be concerned by any kind of acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft,’ Chief Executive Eric Schmidt told reporters,” Chien reports. “‘We would hope that anything they did would be consistent with the openness of the Internet, but I doubt it would be.'”

Chien reports, “Schmidt pointed to Microsoft’s past history and ‘the things that it has done that have been so difficult for everyone,’ but he did not elaborate. ‘We are concerned that there are things Microsoft could do that would be bad for the Internet.'”

Full article here.

26 Comments

  1. “… might hurt internet…” ?!?

    That’s obviously a rhetorical question – right? Because really there is no question about the answer to that question – unless, as I say, it’s meant to be a rhetorical question. So, without question, it must be a rhetorical question.

  2. I once made the choice of Yahoo over Hotmail because it wasnt Microsoft. If M$ succeeds, which I really hope they dont (hang in there Yahoo’ers), it wouldnt surprise me if there was a sudden drop of yahoousers that rather abandoned the boat for Google or something else rather than staying on waiting for captain Balmer to steer it into an abyss blah. I have no idea what I would do if Microsludge succeeds

  3. Microsoft buying Yahoo means in 3 years, there’ll be no sign of Yahoo whatsoever. Microsoft is mainly interested in Yahoo’s engineers. Once they have their hand on that, they can close Yahoo and benefit from their market share.

  4. “Chien reports, “Schmidt pointed to Microsoft’s past history and ‘the things that it has done that have been so difficult for everyone,’ but he did not elaborate.”

    Need he elaborate? All one needs to do is look at a MS product list to se see what they’ve done that’s made thing more difficult.

  5. This Google moron is as bad as you MAC dorks with his doom and gloom view of a larger Microsoft presence in the internet and the wildly false conspiracy theories against the innovative, customer-focused folks in Redmond. Get over it.

    I have news for you MAC losers. Microsoft got where they are today with hard work, revolutionary, creative solutions to technical challenges and a commitment to playing on a level playing field through open formats and fairness in the marketplace. Wake up. Microsoft’s past history and actions are a wonderful success story.

    Your potential. Our passion.™

  6. Give me a break. Google is just whining because they have a monopoly on Search… and they don’t want competition. TO be honest, anyone who has seen the difference between say, the API for Google Maps and the API for MS Virtual Earth… can easily see that the VE API is WAY more open than Google.

    If you have seen MS’s recent stuff… they have been incredibly open. In fact, far more open than Apple OR Google.

    I hate it when massive companies whine about other massive companies.

  7. They haven’t stopped ingesting anything within their grasp.

    “Aiming to fill out its set of tools for Web advertisers and publishers, Microsoft Corp. plans to acquire ad technology firm Rapt Inc.”

    “Microsoft would incorporate Rapt’s software and services into its Atlas Publishers Suite, part of the company’s Advertiser and Publisher Solution Group encompassing Atlas, adCenter, DRIVEpm, Massive Inc. and ScreenTonic.”

    “The move signals Microsoft’s ongoing push into digital advertising, highlighted most dramatically through its $6 billion purchase of aQuantive last year. Most recently, Microsoft snapped up Israeli startup YaData, whose technology is designed to help advertisers find original customer segments online.”

    (source: MediaPost Publications)

  8. @ ApplePi:

    While I don’t enjoy the whining either, I don’t agree that MS has been “incredibly open.” They’ve just been caught trying to buy/bribe their way into making their proprietary Office xml file formats into ISO standards. The documentation for that format is over 11,000 pages and reads like an obfuscator. (You can find pieces of it on the web.) Their current “openness” appears to be just another ploy to duck official scrutiny and lull the regulators.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.