Microsoft won’t rush Yahoo! integration

Source: Technology Digital

Date :10/03/2008 05:14:30

Software giant Microsoft maintains that it won’t rush to integrate Yahoo! web services, should the proposed $41 billion takeover be successful.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has acknowledged the importance of a patient approach to incorporating Yahoo! web technologies as the company hopes to create an online search and advertising package to compete with market leader Google.

According to comScore, at the start of the fourth quarter 2007 Microsoft boasted a paltry 9.7 percent of all web search traffic, compared with 22.9 percent for Yahoo! and 58.5 for Google.

Given Google’s overwhelming dominance in the area, a merger between Microsoft and Yahoo would enable more effective competition, especially as web technology evolves into the realms of semantic searching and data indexing.

Cultural challenges

However, Microsoft remains realistic about the challenges facing them, with chief software architects highlighting some of the possible difficulties of the situation: “They have a number of different types of technology. They have their own corporate culture.”

Ballmer is also aware of the need to streamline the services. “It won’t make sense to have two search services, two advertising services, and two mail services,” he added, highlighting the importance of restructuring the available web services.

However, this acquisition could possibly spell a loss of jobs, as duplicate services are slowly faded out. Of course, this could fail to be the case as further projects are undertaken in the advent of Web 3.0 and the semantic web.

Nevertheless, should the deal take place, it offers an exciting opportunity for web technology development, with Microsoft recently unveiling its Silverlight platform, and Yahoo! announcing a complete redesign of its user-driven news and search aggregator, Yahoo! Buzz.

March 10, 2008