Joint leadership with Ballmer slowed, hurt Microsoft's growth
Wall Street Journal Jun 5, 08 4:24 PM CDT
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Bill Gates’ departure from full-time employment at Microsoft on June 27 will end 8 contentious years in which Gates has attempted to stay onboard while nominally beneath his close friend and new CEO, Steve Ballmer. Though they built the company together, this “ambassadorial succession” produced mixed results, with Gates undermining Ballmer in front of executives, the Wall Street Journal reports.
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ANALYSIS
Friend Connect threatens social-networking business model
Washington Post Jun 3, 08 3:35 PM CDT
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Though Facebook cited privacy concerns in pulling the plug on a partnership with Google aimed at making the Web more social, dollar signs are more likely behind its withdrawal from Friend Connect, the Washington Post reports. "What Facebook is after really is control over their users," one analyst says of the threat to the company's advertising hold.
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Smaller companies 'piggybacking' on larger brand names
Wall Street Journal Jun 3, 08 1:00 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Google is under fire from big companies upset about an advertising mechanism that sometimes results in smaller companies “piggybacking” on larger ones, the Wall Street Journal reports. For example, a hotel search turned up an ad labeled “Marriott Atlanta” that led to hoteltravel.com, which isn’t authorized to use the Marriott label. Google bans the practice, but some accuse the search giant of poor monitoring.
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Most popular sites visited by mobile users don't track with hits from home, office PCs
BusinessWeek Jun 1, 08 10:44 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Mobile web surfers are turning conventional wisdom on its head by traveling to a different constellation of sites than those visited from workday PCs, BusinessWeek reports. The “Weekend Web” relies not on Google, Yahoo, and MySpace, but rather on Craigslist, eBay, the Weather Channel and MapQuest—and don't think tech-industry and marketing giants aren't noticing.
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Site wants to offer easier access to other applications
Forbes May 29, 08 2:44 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Social-networking stalwart Facebook is redesigning its site to allow users easier access to an array of applications that might include search options, Forbes reports, and give advertisers more ways to reach the Facebook community. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at the All Things Digital conference, said the company hoped to work more with search giant Google.
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Media mogul blames Microsoft's lack of 'big deal' experience
CNET May 29, 08 10:49 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Microsoft’s lack of experience in “buying big things” is a major reason the company didn’t seal its buyout of Yahoo, media mogul Rupert Murdoch tells CNET, who adds he was “mystified” at the lack of a deal. An alliance between Yahoo and Google—"just gushing money"—still seems possible, the News Corp. CEO said, barring a regulatory kibosh.
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OPINION
Concerns over personal privacy "misguided"
Atlantic Monthly May 23, 08 11:51 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Google's new health record-sharing service has privacy advocates' hearts racing. But the benefits outweigh the risks, both in costs and potential lives saved, James Gibney argues in the Atlantic. Ready access to personal health records could prevent medical errors like incorrectly prescribed meds while saving billions in related costs.
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"White space" would increase wireless Internet access
Wall Street Journal May 23, 08 11:46 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Google co-founder Larry Page urged Congress and the FCC this week to open up access to unused television airwaves to broaden the reach of wireless Internet. Page asserted that the unused waves, called "white space," would increase Wi-Fi range in rural areas and help provide Internet capability to the entire country, reports the Wall Street Journal .
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Analysis
'Desperate,' 'brilliant' cash-back plan will
sap Google's base
Washington Post May 22, 08 1:38 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Many are pooh-poohing Microsoft’s cash-back search scheme, but Michael Arrington of TechCrunch thinks it’s going to work—and be a major pain in Google’s side. With search-market share at a mere 9.1% (and falling), Microsoft has little to lose, Arrington argues, because search is a winner-takes-most proposition. If customers respond to bribery—and history suggests they will—Microsoft could widen its pie piece.
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Efficiencies outweigh anti-competition issues, giant says; critics not so sure
New York Times May 22, 08 9:35 AM CDT
(Newser)
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An advertising deal between Google and Yahoo is certain to stir the Justice Department’s antitrust division into action, no matter what the two do to address concerns, experts anticipating a partnership between the two Internet leaders tell the New York Times . Google says a deal would simply be a supply matter, with parallels in other industries.
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Site monitors YouTube's castoffs
Wired May 21, 08 12:55 PM CDT
(Newser)
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When YouTube videos get taken down, YouTomb is watching. The new site, the brainchild of a group of MIT students, tracks every video removed from YouTube, along with who requested its removal. YouTomb doesn’t archive the videos—“We’re not interested in bootlegged videos of Naruto, ” says co-creator Dean Jansen—it’s interested solely in watching for fair use abuses.
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Rewards part of effort
to gain ground on market leader Google
Wall Street Journal May 21, 08 10:46 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Having largely abandoned its bid to buy, in the form of Yahoo, a significant presence in the Internet search business, Microsoft now will give customers money back when they buy items through its Live.com search portal, the Wall Street Journal reports. To be made official today, the move makes clear Microsoft isn't giving up on its search ambitions.
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