Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, And Apple: The Online Soap Continues

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 11 of February , 2008 at 2:41 pm

Eight hours ago, WebProNews wrote a story about Yahoo contact AOL to discuss a merger. They have written no other stories on the topic since.

I apologize to Rich Ord and his fabulous editorial crew for beating up on them so much this week, but I couldn’t help but notice that by this time on the same day that Microsoft offered to take Yahoo by force like a prison term lifer owns his new cell buddy, the prestigious news organization had written more stories on that one topic than on any other topic within the previous month. In case you’re wondering, that’s a lot of stories.

Now that Yahoo is fighting back and trying to reclaim its lost virginity, WebProNews seems to have abandoned them. They were hot news, however, when they were Google’s sparring partner’s bitch. From all I could tell, WPN only hyped up the story because they really wanted to see two smaller companies (ANY two would have done, except that these two were the biggest of the small) merge so that Google might have one bigger challenger instead of several smaller Wish-They-Coulds. Too bad, so sad.

Now it’s AOLs turn - and might I point out that AOL isn’t exactly a small potato. It is in the Top 5, after all. But, alas, Google has a small stake in AOL, don’t they Rich? Huh? Don’t they?

You bet your sassafrass they do. As The Times points out, Google owns 5%. I guess that little factoid makes the story a bit less desirable to write about for WebProNews. I think Yahoo’s struggle to find its soul is at least as important a story as it selling the damn thing to Microsoft. Or it should be.

While other blogs and news sites are talking about the latest development in the Yahoo saga, WebProNews has moved on to other stories like e-mail being used in divorce cases and HarperCollins offering free books online. There is even a story that mentions Microsoft and AOL sans Yahoo.

But the most interesting story I’ve read all day about Yahoo is the possibility of Yahoo merging with Apple. Andy Beal may not be right, but at least he appeals some to my imagination. I expect to see that story appear at WebProNews some time in the near future. But I’ve had already read it by then.

Category: Search Engines

• Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg