Microsoft Tries to Buy Yahoo!

Just imagine if Apple purchased Google... or vice versa...

Microsoft purchasing Yahoo! interesting proposition....

Just imagine if Apple purchased Google... or vice versa...

if apple sells itelf, IM LEAVING

I see this as being dangerous to the Internet as a whole--and especially for those of us who'd rather have as little to do with Redmond as possible.

Case in point: look at what happened when M$ took over Hotmail. 'Nuff said.

With luck, federal regulators will find it violates anti-trust and nix the deal.

Case in point: look at what happened when M$ took over Hotmail. 'Nuff said.

Wasn't hotmail always Microsoft's?

Capitalism at it's finest. Haha. I smell a monopoly coming....and Bill Gates is the guy with the tophat.

Its a poor fit, will cause at least a year or two of post-merger indigestion, and in my opinion a bad business decision.

so go ahead, do it!

Wasn't hotmail always Microsoft's?

I may be showing my age...but wasn't it "rocketmail" prior to being hotmail? i could be completely off base here.

1(none)yahoo.com

2(none)google.com

3 1youtube.com

4 1live.com5

2msn.com

6(none)myspace.com

7(none)facebook.com

8 2hi5.com

9 1wikipedia.org

10 1orkut.com

.......19 1microsoft.com

Yahoo.com+Live.com+MSN.com+Microsoft.com= I really don't know what to think of this. I've always used hotmail for webmail and still do, now that its 'live' mail its still just as good. I know tons of Yahoo users, but overall I doubt this would effect users in a negative way. If done right, the merger of Yahoo, Live and MSN would be beneficial to users in the future.

Wasn't hotmail always Microsoft's?

No, it wasn't. It started on its own in 1996, and was integrated into Redmond early in 1998.

IIRC, it ran BSD, Solaris, and Linux at the server level--not surprisingly MS changed it to Windows Server after the deal went through.

I'm more of a Google guy myself.

I don't think anything much would change right away anyway. Although if MS Live added some real functionality out of a merger with Yahoo!, I wouldn't have any problem with that.

I may be showing my age...but wasn't it "rocketmail" prior to being hotmail? i could be completely off base here.

I just yahoo'd rocketmail

and i never use yahoo

but interestingly, it turned out to be a yahoo service....

http://www.rocketmail.com/

I'm more of a Google guy myself.

 

I don't think anything much would change right away anyway. Although if MS Live added some real functionality out of a merger with Yahoo!, I wouldn't have any problem with that.

Same here.

I just think that Google knows what people wants and how to provide it. Not to mention they usually do an excellent job (in my honest opinion) of providing their products to Mac and Linux users...

Yahoo.com+Live.com+MSN.com+Microsoft.com= I really don't know what to think of this. I've always used hotmail for webmail and still do, now that its 'live' mail its still just as good. I know tons of Yahoo users, but overall I doubt this would effect users in a negative way. If done right, the merger of Yahoo, Live and MSN would be beneficial to users in the future.

As far as i remember, hotmail has always been crappy. You can't get your mail via POP or IMAP, the servers are slow and often down. Yahoo mail or Gmail are way better... When i switched to the mac, my only problems came from the fact that i used microsoft product or services : MSN messenger (MS's version for the mac is just so basic ... no webcam, Yahoo messenger for mac has a video feature), Hotmail (you have to use freepops to emulate the POP server MS doesn't provide ...). I don't even talk about Office which is {censored} on mac (2004 is stable but PPC so slow, 2008 is not even an alpha version IMO).

^^ yahoo only allows pop3 access for paid accounts, and their IMAP is only for iphone users. they're not really any better than MS, who lets you view your hotmail in Outlook/Outlook express at least.

IIRC, it ran BSD, Solaris, and Linux at the server level--not surprisingly MS changed it to Windows Server after the deal went through.

It took them around 2 years to fully switch Hotmail over to Windows server, with yahoo's size and infrastructure I don't see a shift happening until the current hardware is ready to retire.

Paul Thurrot of Winsupersite.com has posted an analysis of the results of a Microsoft+Yahoo merger. He concludes:

Final thoughts

I support Microsoft's efforts to purchase Yahoo and combine that company's assets with its Live services business. Both companies have an interesting mix of online products and services, but Microsoft desperately needs to embrace the move to cloud computing and stop hedging its bets in that area by focusing too much on its traditional and aging core businesses. Yahoo will bring a healthy attitude about platform-agnostic cloud computing to the insular world of Microsoft and, hopefully, inspire the company to reach for the future instead of just defending the past. As a user of these systems today, I'm excited by the possibilities. As a close observer of Microsoft for many, many years, I'm fearful that the company has become too short-sighted and isolationist to do the right thing. But Microsoft's aggressive move to acquire Yahoo suggests a self-awareness of its problems. I hope this trend continues.

Trying to move from products to service is going to be the biggest mistake Microsoft ever makes. The services is a hype bubble, and if (when) it pops, they are going to suffer seriously. This could very well be opening the door for Apple to be a real competitor in the future.

^^ yahoo only allows pop3 access for paid accounts, and their IMAP is only for iphone users.

Actually yes and no. What you said is true for yahoo's US ".com" users. The Canadian ".ca " yahoo allows POP3 access. So sign up at yahoo.ca and you'll get a few extra goodies.

Actually yes and no. What you said is true for yahoo's US ".com" users. The Canadian ".ca " yahoo allows POP3 access. So sign up at yahoo.ca and you'll get a few extra goodies.

nah I'd still rather use gmail and imap

Actually I'm a Gmail user too. My dad lives in Canada though and it was when I was helping him set up mail on his hackintosh that I noticed the options. I just mentioned it in my previous post as a point of interest to any Yahoo users out there.

Who told you that Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo? Mr. Balmer in his campaign?

Haha. It's just a trick. Someone earns quite some cash before the Dino dies.

Google made it. Grats.

Dude just looking at your signatures....nice rigs (lappies and otherwise) you got...what in heck do you work as in order to get enough dough for these slick Macs??? hahaha.

Just today, Microsoft tried to purchase Yahoo for about $44 billion dollars in cash and shares. This is thought to be a way to compete with Google, who both companies have been trying to rival. If Microsoft were to succeed, it would receive all outstanding stock for Yahoo, which is now at $31 a share. While this could be good news for those who don't understand Microsoft, the ones closer to the interwebs might actually worry about this. Mostly because Microsoft has been known to "mess things up." No word yet if Yahoo is going to accept this deal.

 

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