This is sort of a preemptive post since I said in my earlier one that the contest will end on May 8. Now is May 6, what’s the hurry? First of all, the day after I started the contest, AJ, always faster than a speeding bullet, made his entry here. His answer is Jonas delos Reyes. And guess what, he’s RIGHT!
To mark his Yahoo debut, Jonas makes his first official blog post on the Yahoo Philippines Answers blog:
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Probably the hottest news abuzz this year is the looming merger — some say hostile takeover — between Microsoft and Yahoo. Earlier, it was about the resistance on the part of Yahoo to capitulate to the software giant. Lately, the focus has shifted to Redmond and the perceived motive behind their bid to acquire the second largest search engine.
Very recently, two analysts from Gartner, a research services firm, asserted that Microsoft is now on shaky ground due to the state of Windows Vista, which they described as “collapsing”. The analysts, Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald, practically assessed the latest version of the Windows OS as a failure due to disappointingly low market acceptance. According to a rival firm, Forrester Research, by the end of 2007, only a little more than 6% of enterprise-level PC users had migrated to Vista.
The main reason cited for the poor sales performance is the lack of understanding among general users of what makes Vista so much better than Windows XP. And for those who do know, many of them are turned off by the resource-hungriness of Vista. Also, it’s reported that most of those who have adopted the latest OS were users of the nearly-extinct Windows 2000; apparently, Windows XP users (like me) are staying put.
Gartner is now widely quoted as saying that Microsoft is in an “untenable” situation. It predicts that Microsoft Corp. could be in financial straits by 2011 due to a presumed thinning of the latter’s market base. The firm further forecasts that a large number of technology users will be shifting to “OS-agnostic applications” (computer programs not dependent on what operating system is installed), thereby adversely affecting another area that has been dominated by Microsoft: office productivity suites. A prime analogy would be Google Apps, which competes with Microsoft Office.
The Google Apps suite — documents, spreadsheets, presentations, calendar, email, and even more to come — is deployed over the Web, and so is made available to anyone for free, regardless of what’s making his or her computer run. Increased acceptance of such systems could very well erode Microsoft’s revenues from MS Office, reportedly $16 billion in 2007 (including Exchange Server, which allows Office applications to be deployed across the Internet, among other things).
Gartner then proceeded to explore the notion that this is what’s inducing Microsoft to get its hands on Yahoo: to finally capture, and capitalize on, the Internet-ads history (and potential) of the first search engine to gain worldwide attention.
True, virtually every Web venture is targeting Internet advertising as a source of huge revenue. Even Google is in the bandwagon (if it’s not, in fact, the horse). Microsoft, however, has remained staunchly a software publisher and provider, and has ruled over this landscape for a couple of generations. Therefore, isn’t it rather a stretch to assume that this particular Goliath will just keel over and die?
The points made by Gartner are worth looking over. But, in my opinion, MS Office and Windows (perhaps not Vista but the keenly-anticipated Windows 7) are here to stay for longer than anyone might care to imagine.
So, why does Microsoft want to have Yahoo!? At this point, it’s still anybody’s best guess. My take on this is: isn’t it but natural for a business to proceed into further territory?
Two of my friends, Kuya Andrew and Kuya Blogie, who are both using OpenDNS and PLDT myDSL encountered an annoying problem this afternoon. PLDT myDSL subscribers who uses OpenDNS blocks their access to search engine sites like Google, Yahoo and MSN.
The odd thing about it is the presence of the PLDT myDSL logo below the Site Blocked message of OpenDNS.
Did OpenDNS mistake Philippines as China?
I hope they (PLDT and OpenDNS) can check this one.
You may read their posts below:
Last September, a few bloggers were buzzing about a certain job opening at Yahoo. Specifically, they were looking for an Online Community Manager for the Philippines, whose chores include:
Yes, it’s safe to say they’re looking for an Aileen Apolo who likes to yodel.
Mike questioned why the position was based in Singapore and not here. A perfectly valid point, but Abe says it’s because they don’t have an office here yet. But now that it’s confirmed that they are setting up a Philippine hub, odds are that person will be assigned locally.
Word is it won’t be till next year that Yahoo will start building their office but are in the process of forming strategic alliances with local content providers. More importantly, some lucky guy or gal might have already been hired as our Online Community Manager. Question is, who is he/she?
Ya, WHO?
Expect a Yahoo! office in Manila by the second quarter of this year, says newly appointed general manager Jojo Anonuevo (of Mobius fame). Claiming to capture 85% of the 22 million-strong Filipino Internet population, Yahoo! is bent on dominating the online advertising market in the country, which it says will make up 5% of the total advertising spend here. Aside from that, the local Y! office will work on generating more content for Yahoo.com.ph through their content partners, which will most likely include Inquirer.net and Yehey. Yehey is rumored to start selling advertising for Y! since last year.
Smart business move on Y!’s part. If they really want a taste of the market, it’s a no-brainer to go to where the action is. Most definitely, Google has their work cut out for them. Will I be blogging about Google coming to the Philippines soon? Wait, they chose Malaysia right. Probably not in the near future.
Let’s try to hypothesize a scenario wherein Google tries to outbid Microsoft for online portal Yahoo! I think Yahoo! would take Google’s offer in a heartbeat, knowing that they are more culturally similar and both, in their own seemingly quirky ways, are pushing the limits of innovation on the web. Microsoft, on the other hand, stands to lose the only chance they have of carving a chunk out of the online advertising market that Google dominates. It will continue to make big bucks out of its software business, but all of that won’t mean anything when business, advertising, entertainment and should I say word processing are quickly shifting their gears to the Internet.
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