Microsoft buying Yahoo! is a good thing.

There is already news that Microsoft is about to finalize the Yahoo deal by Monday. I for one will be very happy if Microsoft buys Yahoo, not because i like Microsoft or that i am in sync with their policies. I want Microsoft to buy Yahoo because I like underdogs and Microsoft is the underdog in search and online advertising market with their tiny user base. We as users should always hate monopolies and corporations which are dominant. I have hated Microsoft when it comes to their 90% monopoly in Operating System market, I have hated Apple for their near control of portable music player market and I hate Google for their dominance in Search and online advertising.

Monopolies are bad for users, mainly because there is very less room for innovation and corporations who are monopolistic tend to exploit users. Google is a publicly traded company and it has shareholders to satisfy every quarter, No matter what their motto is be it “Don’t be evil” which Sergey Brin coined or the parody of it “Do less evil” which Bill Gates coined in reference to Google self-censoring its search to enter Chinese Market. Google has to show profits every quarter to keep up its market value. With the way things are going in Search Market, there is no room for any start up to compete with Google because they are too big and if Google sees a threat from the start up, they buy it and let it rot in their stables. Here is the list of the companies Google bought.

Haven’t we all seen how monopolies destroy the market and stagnate innovation. It is currently happening in Operating System Market, when was the last time we saw something amazing on our desktops and laptops with the exception of Mac OS X. Wouldn’t it be great if Microsoft had some real competition in Operating System’s where it would have pushed them to innovate rather than churn out under tested and over funded Operating Systems.

The other reason i want Microsoft to buy Yahoo is because when Google has competition, it might have better privacy policies in place than what it has now. Privacy International goes on record saying Google has been placed at the bottom of its rating for its privacy policies. Even Microsoft has better rating than Google when it comes to privacy. You can read more about it here. Is it not scary when a monopoly like Google holds the users personal data for whatever reasons. Maybe they are not exploiting the users now, but what if in the future they do when they don’t have any competition and we users don’t have any other alternative to go to.

So when Microsoft buys Yahoo, fields would get more even for a fight in the search and online advertising market which only helps the users. Believe me, there would be more innovation in the Search now then we have seen in past 3 or 4 years. Competition is Good for the market, and the only company in the World which has a chance of even competing with Google is Microsoft.

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5 Comments so far

  1. Azhar (not you, of course) on May 4th, 2008

    You make some good points - logical ones, but I don’t want Microsoft to buy Yahoo! just because an un-innovative company is buying a company that re-shaped the internet and revolutionized it when it all began. Don’t you also remember the days Yahoo! was probably the best place to be for e-mail and chat, competing with Hotmail/MSN. Now it goes back to a Microsoft - Google war with Gmail vs. MSFT’s Hotmail AND Yahoo Mail (taking only one example).

    Its just sad. A piece of internet history bought and sold to a collector bound to take the life out of it. Seriously, who wants MSFT to own things like Flickr and del.icio.us? Honestly, nobody, not even you.

  2. Pavan on May 6th, 2008

    Not very convincing.
    you say you like underdogs and point out no one likes dominance.
    Well, everyone likes underdogs because,they defy formidable forces, like convention.
    You say micro soft is the underdog here because they don’t have a good user base and so its now a building phase for them.
    Well buying a spectacular established user base from yahoo isn’t quite convincing. Its money from a monopoly from other markets they own, they are using to capitalize on yahoo’s crisis.This isn’t even close to a single trait of “Underdogism”.

    And regarding, that they will be only ones who can compete with google, then perhaps yes - that is one part i agree with you. You have to curb monopoly.

    Besides don’t be disheartned that microsoft cancelled the deal, because, there is still a speculation and i believe it might be … That microsoft pulled out so that the “Feared black monday happens”(share values plunge) and then microsoft goes in for hostile bid .. and gets yahoo for lot less.

  3. Dale Hay on May 10th, 2008

    To be honest I would hate Microsoft buying Yahoo because Microsoft offers products for money… Yahoo is like Google … it gives free stuff out. Microsoft takes over and it’ll go dodgy.

  4. azharcs on May 11th, 2008

    @Dale Hay - Most of the things on the internet are free and Microsoft like others gives it away for free too unless it is their OS or their enterprise apps.

  5. Ajay on May 14th, 2008

    i also feel that buying yahoo is Good Deal For Microsoft

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