Posts Tagged: microsoft yahoo

advertising / strategy — 2 Comments
21
Dec 09

Yahoo who?

yahoo_shipVultures on standby. A new report shows that Yahoo, once the darling of Internet search, has hit a record-low market share of 17.5%. Google, of course, keeps piling it on.

But wait, you say. Help is on its way. The new Microsoft/Yahoo partnership will activate in 2010. True, but this hole is getting deeper with every passing week. The purpose of the new deal was to boost the companies’ combined market share to over 30% from their current 28%. These new numbers are going down, not up.

The only bit of bright news is for Microsoft, not Yahoo. Bing’s market share is now up over 10%, picking up some of Yahoo’s losses. Yahoo’s swan dive into the darkness continued with a 10th consecutive month of losing market share.

It’s hard not to get a nervous feeling around Yahoo. Granted, I run with a dubious crowd — but I see about as much enthusiasm in this world for Yahoo as I do for Zune. It’s not likely that a new marketing campaign will turn things around (especially the one they’re running). These days, when we think of search and innovation, we simply think of Google. In the absence of any world-changing ideas, Yahoo feels like yesterday’s news.

It’s a bit early to file Yahoo away with WordPerfect, Earthlink, Compaq and those other technology stars that once burnt brightly. But, if you’re the type who gets emotional over such things… you might want to get a head start dealing with the trauma.

strategy — 4 Comments
10
Aug 09

Microsoft & Yahoo: A bigger Also-Ran

30soft1.600There seems to be an even split of opinions on whether the Microsoft/ Yahoo agreement is a good thing or a non-thing. I put my vote firmly on the non side. Two reasons. The first is that guy on the right in this photo. He’s a windbag. I believe that when the history of his company is written, Ballmer will be known as the guy who captained the ship to exciting new depths. I honestly can’t understand why the shareholders have been so patient. The second reason is simple common sense.

People flock to innovative companies with products that raise the bar by an order of magnitude. They don’t jump ship from something they are actively loving unless the thing they love becomes less lovable — which Google shows no signs of doing. Can we be sure Google won’t somehow screw up one day and let MicroHoo in the door? Of course not. But if you look at what Google is and what they’re doing, that doesn’t seem to be a likely scenario. These guys are excruciatingly smart, open to new ideas, eager to invent and evolve. All things that Microsoft is having a tough time doing. So as a combined force, the new search powerhouse will own 28% of the market while Google cruises along with a seemingly impregnable 65%. If I were looking at those odds and comparing the two horses prepping for the race, I know where I’d put my money.

Remember, people love to be on the side of a winner, as long as the winner makes them feel happy. Google, like Apple, makes people really, really happy. They continue to attract the brainiest, most creative thinkers, they continue to devote themselves to innovation. They truly understand what we want. So they are about as likely to lose a significant share of market to MicroHoo as iPod is to lose more than 12 customers to Zune.