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Tech Bytes: Google distracting from the real prize
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Google distracting from the real prize

By Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

The tech media - mainstream and bloggers alike - are understandably a-twitter over Microsoft's $45-billion US move on Yahoo, not to mention Google's response to it. This is like our very own Britney Spears meltdown: An event to be covered in thorough, excruciatingly painful detail, with every aspect analyzed and re-analyzed until everyone is sick of hearing about it. If only Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had a little sister that was pregnant outside of wedlock.

I have to admit to being a fan of Robert Scoble's theory. Scoble, as you may or may not know, rose to prominence as a blogger while working for Microsoft, so he knows a thing or two about the company. On this topic, Scoble argues that Google's damning of Microsoft's attempt to take over Yahoo - which would be bad for the internet because Microsoft is evil and all about monopolies, etc. - is an attempt by the search company to distract people from the real prize, which is wireless.

Although a Microsoft-Yahoo merger could potentially create an e-mail and instant messaging monopoly, there's no money in those businesses, Scoble says. The more Google can slow down the merger by getting a whole lot of regulatory attention to it, the more it will have the mobile internet market to itself.

Scoble may be wrong on there not being any money in e-mail or messaging - after all, every Gmail user sees tons of ad links - but he is right about wireless. It's a point we made as well in our cellphone series in November - the wired internet is so 2000 and the wireless internet revolution is on the verge of happening. Not only is Google working to make it happen, it is also trying hard to position itself to be the best company to take advantage of it. Why else would the company bid billions of dollars to buy spectrum in the U.S. auction that is currently underway?

By the way - there are a lot of negative Nellys out there who say Google is only bidding on those airwaves in order to force a number of open-access rules on existing cellphone providers and that the company has no intent of being the winner, which would require it to actually build a mobile network. That would cost additional billions and take years, they say. It's worth noting that many of the people making such predictions are financial types who focus on short-term investments while Google's stated business plan is to focus on the long-term. The smart money is on Google to do exactly the opposite of what the smart money would do.

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Comments

Jordan

Winnipeg

I still can't believe the value that is being placed on all of these massive websites like Yahoo! and Google despite next to no assets. What's worse is Yahoo! feels they were undervalued by 25% - 45%.
This feels like the dot com crash all over again.

Posted February 4, 2008 05:52 PM

Jason

Halifax

Well, I'd look at it like this. So many people use Google that it's the primary address that people type in before they start surfing. www.google.ca
Such a simple address to remmeber. If Yahoo were to merge, I'd really wouldn't see the point to it making Microsoft 'more popular'. Who the hell uses Yahoo Messenger? I sure don't and many individuals around me as well. And you can use your G-mail account (Google Mail) to sign on Msn Live! Messenger. So you can every thing with Google. Plus it's safer and you can avoid all the spam mail and the such. I hate spam mail or 'ad mail'. Nothing more aggravating then stupid emails that are solely just ads.

I feel that this merger isn't going to affect Google at all. I think it's all hype over this merger.Google is more relaint then Yahoo as a serach engine, and Microsoft as well. Stand you're ground, Google, because this heisty battle has only just begun.

Posted February 5, 2008 08:17 AM

Fred Hand

Newfoundland

I agree with Jordan

Posted February 5, 2008 08:48 AM

mt

Ottawa

I'm not sure why anyone would be worried about and email/IM monopoly ... there are hundreds of email providers, and more than enough IM applications to choose from. All this merger would do is cause everyone with a yahoo account to get used to hotmail, or at worst some new hybrid. As for IM, Yahoo and Live Messengers are already interoperable - you can send messages to users of either, to/from either - I would bet that any merger would at least inititally ignore the applications and people would be able to continue using whichever they prefer.
The Yahoo and MSN sites may so some of the largest around, but they are certainly not the only ones. A merger would simply decrease the number of major super-sites by one.

The only thing I find interesting about all this is that in Canada Bell deals with Microsoft and Rogers deals with Yahoo ...

Posted February 5, 2008 02:20 PM

Jordan

Winnipeg

With a website, hits only go so far. Advertising revenue is quite limited and with Google you don't have a ton of options...you can't exactly make people pay per search, can you?

Posted February 5, 2008 04:37 PM

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