Without a doubt, the big search news story so far this month is Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. Bloggers and industry analysts indulged in a little “will they, won’t they” speculation as the story dodged a warning shot from Google. Nilhan Jayasinghe was among those speculating, writing:
For many people in the advertising and marketing space, the partnership could provide a plausible contender for Google. And at least on paper the numbers add up. But if all we can expect is increased market share based purely on combining their current capital then I’m worried.
He needn’t have been; Yahoo cruelly spurned Microsoft’s advances. Still, there was even more excitement for the search engine on Valentine’s Day, as reports surfaced that Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace-owning News Corporation was considering a stronger bid. The story rumbles on.
The last fortnight has seen a few blows to openness on the web, with eBay silencing negative seller comments, the government wanting to unplug illegal downloaders, and a US court plugging Wikileaks.
Over on Open, meanwhile, Antony Mayfield was wowed by Gartner’s prediction that two years hence, social lending will account for 10% of the loans market:
Imagine ten percent of your market disappearing in a few years to social marketplace… Of course it’s happened (and then some) already for music, news, classified ads, movies etc – but there’s something thrilling about seeing the forces of change stirred up by the social web reaching the personal finance sector.
Antony’s also been discussing the technology of the US presidential campaigns, and the way that some of the most effective campaigning is being done by people outside of the campaign staff. He shows how wrong the approach can go with a “cringe-inducing” video from Hilary Clinton’s team:
Someone in the room knew it was an abysmal idea and stayed quiet. Let us remember that always, and swear never to be the person who didn’t say: ‘That completely sucks. People will laugh at us.’
