New Marketing - Trends and Insights

Monday, February 04, 2008

Microsoft octopus prays on Yahoo!

I guess it was 1995 when I opened my first free e-mail account. Of course it was from Hotmail. Back then, yes, it was hot!
Not long after, just in case, since I used the Yahoo! directory services (and basically because it was free), I also opened a proud Yahoo!Mail account.

Fast forward until Microsoft buys Hotmail, transforming what was a lean, fast, and cool e-mail service into a mastodontical, sluggish, spam-ridden, and good-for-nothing-else-than-accessing-MSN thing. MSN 8, AKA "Live Messenger" loads slowly, basically blocks everything else while loading, and for what? To get live feed on some crap articles about Britney Spears which I cannot care less.
As so many other people in th world, I only use MSN because my friends use it also... but since Yahoo!Messenger got integrated into the Yahoo!Mail proper I can chat with my friends and colleagues without needing to access MSN! Nice!

... and by the way, I still use my Yahoo!Mail accounts (plural) and overall Yahoo! services every day, and why? Fast, lean, no spam. Oh that wounderful advantage!
So when I hear they are under scrutiny for being bought by the sluggish thing, I tremble! Over 10 years of faithful service down the drain! PC blockage! Spam! Nooooooooooooo!

Microsoft could go on and buy Google. Evil buys Evil. No problem. Yahoo! would be reduced to providing their excellent service for the anti-evil niche, while the sheep would continue to endure the crap Microsoft service with a smile... until one day they would wake up.

... and I thought Yahoo! was in trouble before!
What are they going to say next? Google is overvalued and Yahoo! is undervalued?