Darren Straight’s Blog

Both the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that sources say Microsoft and Yahoo were are talking again about how they might merge or cooperate.

To quote from the The New York Post it says:

Recent talks between Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. over how to band together betray increasing unrest at Microsoft over how to compete with Google Inc. and get in step with the booming online-advertising market.

Microsoft and Yahoo discussed a possible merger or other matchup that would pair their respective strengths, say people familiar with the situation. The merger discussions are no longer active, these people say, but that doesn’t preclude the two companies from some other form of cooperation.

If merger talks are revived, whether Microsoft and Yahoo could reach an agreement remains as much of a question as it did a year ago, when similar talks ended inconclusively. Microsoft has always steered clear of large acquisitions. Yahoo has about 11,700 employees and earlier this week had a market value of about $38 billion. Yahoo shares surged $2.80, or 9.9%, to $30.98 in 4 p.m. Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading on news of the talks, raising the company’s market value to around $42 billion Friday. Microsoft’s shares fell 41 cents to $30.56 on Nasdaq.

Great News for all you Upcoming.org fans, today the Yahoo Search Blog announced the release of Upcoming.org 2.0 which includes some additional changes and upgrades to Upcoming, including the integration of Flickr and the transition of Upcoming.org onto the Signle Sign in Yahoo! Local platform. And this time Yahoo! seems to have sweeten the deal with a free offer of a T-shirt. However its only available to America and Canada.

Anybody from the US or Canada willing to help me get it sent to the UK by re-sending it for me? Really would be greatful!

Read more about the release here and here!

Check out my Upcoming Profile at:

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/user/95912/

comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, has released its monthly qSearch analysis of activity across competitive search engines.  In March 2007, Google Sites captured 48.3 percent of the U.S. search market, gaining 0.2 share points from the previous month.  Yahoo! Sites maintained its second place ranking with 27.5 percent of U.S. searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (10.9 percent), Ask Network (5.2 percent) and Time Warner Network (5.0 percent).

• Americans conducted 7.3 billion searches online in March, up 6 percent versus February and 14 percent versus March 2006. 
• Google Sites led the pack with 3.5 billion search queries performed, followed by Yahoo Sites (2.0 billion), Microsoft Sites (798 million), Ask Network (379 million), and Time Warner Network (368 million).

Well Jeremy Schoemaker thinks so with his 10 reasons why:

1. The Search Algorithm
2. Overture Yahoo Search Marketing
3. Yahoo Publisher Network
4. Flickr
5. Del.icio.us
6. The People
7. Video
8. Community Properties
9. Business Directory
10. Yahoo Just Cleaned The House

Read his full post here which includes more details about each reason.

As well as this post at the Internet Marketing Monitor Blog, which gives you 10 reasons as to why Microsoft Will Not Aquire Yahoo in 2007!

And then come back and answer the question will Microsoft aquire Yahoo in 2007, if you say yes try and give me some reason as to why you agree with Jeremy and if you dont think they will then try and list your own 10 reasons as to why Microsoft will not try and aquire Yahoo!

Since Microsoft’s and Yahoo’s agreement last year to make Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger interoperable so users could exchange instant messages between each other on the different networks, we now have some more proof that it’s in testing, as found out by inziga a member on the trillian forums.

One problem though it seems to be only working on the Yahoo Messenger for Mac so youll need a Mac to test this out, or a virtual Mac OS, or even a friend that has a Mac!

All you have to do is log in to Windows Live Messenger with your passport account (must be @msn.com or @hotmail.com) and log in to Yahoo Messenger for Mac with you Yahoo screename and add a passport account as a contact in Yahoo Messenger Beta for Mac, and hopefully you’ll be able to talk.

For an image of this check out the trillian forums.

I was reading about this earlier this morning and straight away I knew I just had to post it here, if this does happen I just hope I get into the Beta as I believe this might not ever happen again!

Microsoft and Yahoo announced on Wednesday a blockbuster interoperability deal that will reshape the landscape of the fragmented instant messaging market. The companies will connect their IM networks so users on each can communicate with one another using text and voice chat free of charge.

Starting in the second quarter of 2006, customers of both services will be able to see their friends’ online presence, share emoticons, and add new contacts from either Yahoo! Messenger or MSN Messenger to their buddy list.

The agreement marks the first time major players in the highly-competitive IM industry have officially partnered up to enable cross-network communication. Interoperability has always been a hot topic among instant messaging providers, but had never yielded a compromise.

In 1999, Microsoft connected its MSN Messenger client to AOL’s AIM network - without authorization. The move let to a cat-and-mouse game of AOL cutting off its new competitor and MSN re-establishing communication with each update. Microsoft eventually gave up and focused on improving its client.

Such disparate messaging networks led to the creation of third party clients with the ability to connect to each simultaneously. AOL and others were initially critical of applications like Trillian, but eventually backed down and ceased efforts to block the newcomers.

“IM interoperability is the right thing for our customers, our businesses and the industry as a whole, and Microsoft is delighted to help lead these efforts with Yahoo,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a statement.

“This is truly a turning point for the IM industry,” added Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, “and we believe our agreement with Microsoft will help usher in a new era of IP communications.”

Yahoo and Microsoft will now command upwards of 44 percent of the market, according to research firm Radicati Group, putting new pressure on market leader AOL, which holds around 56 percent market share with AIM and ICQ. And according to recent comScore Media Metrix numbers, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger together reach 33.5 million unique users each month, more than the 23 million running AIM.

But competing with AOL is likely not the primary reason Microsoft and Yahoo have linked up. The new threat to the IM heavyweights comes from voice chat and upstarts such as Skype that have taken the communications industry by storm. Google, meanwhile, recently launched a communications client called Google Talk that focuses on simple PC-to-PC calling.

Still, a source at Yahoo expressed concern about the new partnership to BetaNews, hypothesizing that interoperability will only serve to strengthen Microsoft’s position in the market.

Recently, IM software clients have evolved to link consumers to other services beyond just chat - from blogs to search. And if users are able to message contacts on Yahoo through the MSN client bundled with Windows, it could hamper Yahoo’s efforts to reach more eyeballs.

Microsoft is also reported to be in talks with Time Warner, and a deal to open the door between MSN Messenger and AIM has been rumored. However, nothing concrete has come from the discussions thus far.

Article at BetaNews