The web is afire with the news that after its latest bid attempt to takeover Yahoo failed, Microsoft decided to back down. My desktop news widget is going wild with this news... updating every 30s or so with more updates from Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, Forbes, Information Week, CNet News, etc; hot news indeed. All those big time journals aside it appears that BoomTown's Kara Swisher was the first to break the news.
Mr. Jerry Yang CEO and Chief Yahoo Yahoo Inc. 701 First Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Dear Jerry:
After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo.
I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo's Board of Directors for your consideration of our proposal. I appreciate the time and attention all of you have given to this matter, and I especially appreciate the time that you have invested personally. I feel that our discussions this week have been particularly useful, providing me for the first time with real clarity on what is and is not possible.
I am disappointed that Yahoo has not moved towards accepting our offer. I first called you with our offer on January 31 because I believed that a combination of our two companies would have created real value for our respective shareholders and would have provided consumers, publishers, and advertisers with greater innovation and choice in the marketplace. Our decision to offer a 62 percent premium at that time reflected the strength of these convictions.
In our conversations this week, we conveyed our willingness to raise our offer to $33.00 per share, reflecting again our belief in this collective opportunity. This increase would have added approximately another $5 billion of value to your shareholders, compared to the current value of our initial offer. It also would have reflected a premium of over 70 percent compared to the price at which your stock closed on January 31. Yet it has proven insufficient, as your final position insisted on Microsoft paying yet another $5 billion or more, or at least another $4 per share above our $33.00 offer.
Also, after giving this week's conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.
We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a "hostile" bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo undesirable to us for a number of reasons:
-- First, it would fundamentally undermine Yahoo's own strategy and long-term viability by encouraging advertisers to use Google as opposed to your Panama paid search system. This would also fragment your search advertising and display advertising strategies and the ecosystem surrounding them. This would undermine the reliance on your display advertising business to fuel future growth.
-- Given this, it would impair Yahoo's ability to retain the talented engineers working on advertising systems that are important to our interest in a combination of our companies.
-- In addition, it would raise a host of regulatory and legal problems that no acquirer, including Microsoft, would want to inherit. Among other things, this would consolidate market share with the already-dominant paid search provider in a manner that would reduce competition and choice in the marketplace.
-- This would also effectively enable Google to set the prices for key search terms on both their and your search platforms and, in the process, raise prices charged to advertisers on Yahoo. In addition to whatever resulting legal problems, this seems unwise from a business perspective unless in fact one simply wishes to use this as a vehicle to exit the paid search business in favor of Google.
-- It could foreclose any chance of a combination with any other search provider that is not already relying on Google's search services.
Accordingly, your apparent plan to pursue such an arrangement in the event of a proxy contest or exchange offer leads me to the firm decision not to pursue such a path. Instead, I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft's proposal to acquire Yahoo.
We will move forward and will continue to innovate and grow our business at Microsoft with the talented team we have in place and potentially through strategic transactions with other business partners.
I still believe even today that our offer remains the only alternative put forward that provides your stockholders full and fair value for their shares. By failing to reach an agreement with us, you and your stockholders have left significant value on the table.
But clearly a deal is not to be.
Thank you again for the time we have spent together discussing this.
Steven A. Ballmer Chief Executive Officer Microsoft Corporation
Yahoo's Reply Yahoo's Chairman Roy Bostock issued a public statement that included some jubilant words from Jerry Yang about the "distraction of Microsoft's unsolicited bid":
"We remain focused on maximizing shareholder value and pursuing strategic opportunities that position Yahoo! for success and leadership in its markets. From the beginning of this process, our independent board and our management have been steadfast in our belief that Microsoft's offer undervalued the company and we are pleased that so many of our shareholders joined us in expressing that view. Yahoo! is profitable, growing, and executing well on its strategic plan to capture the large opportunities in the relatively young online advertising market. Our solid results for the first quarter of 2008 and increased full year 2008 operating cash flow outlook reflect the progress the company is making. Today, Yahoo! has:
-- a refined strategic focus to drive enhanced volume and yield;
-- reorganized to focus its efforts on its most promising products and services;
-- invested in innovations designed to revolutionize display advertising and facilitate closing the competitive gap in search; and
-- enhanced expense and resource management to support improved profitability."
Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief executive officer, Yahoo! Inc. added, "I am incredibly proud of the way our team has come together over the last three months. This process has underscored our unique and valuable strategic position. With the distraction of Microsoft's unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history so that we can maximize our potential to the benefit of our shareholders, employees, partners and users."
BONUS - Ballmer's Internal Memo to Microsoft I came across this article at CNet a few minutes ago showing a copy of Steve Ballmer's internatl memo to Microsoft staff and felt it was worth including:
From: Steve Ballmer Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2008 5:18 PM To: Microsoft - All Employees (QBDG) Subject: Withdrawal of Offer to Acquire Yahoo!
This afternoon I sent the attached letter to Jerry Yang announcing that Microsoft has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo. We proposed the deal in the belief that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger would create a combined company with the resources and assets to win in the fast-growing market for advertising and online services.
Although the acquisition of Yahoo would have accelerated our ability to deliver on our strategy in advertising and online services, I remain confident that we can achieve our goals without Yahoo. We have a strategy in place to do so and we will continue to expand on this strategy and accelerate our progress.
Our strategy has three components:
Deliver on the basics. We will continue to improve search relevance and build out our ad platform.
Change the game through innovation. We will expand investments in engineering and deliver transformative tools and Web experiences.
Expand our global scale and focus. We will pursue partnerships and investments to realize the competitive advantages that come with scale.
At the heart of our strategy is a commitment to bring the benefits of competition, choice, and innovation to everyone who uses the Internet--from consumers to content creators to advertisers.
We are 100 percent focused on executing on this strategy and we have made good progress in a very short time. We've improved search relevance dramatically, introduced compelling new search verticals, successfully integrated Aquantive, and added nearly 100 new publishers to our ad platform. In the last couple of months we've rolled out new versions of key products including Internet Explorer and Silverlight, and introduced new technologies like Live Mesh. We now have over 430 million active users of our Windows Live services worldwide. And we continue to add new technologies with acquisitions such as YaData, which brings leading-edge behavioral targeting technology, and Caligari, which gives us advanced 3D modeling capabilities that will help us continue to improve Virtual Earth.
Ultimately, our goal is to build the industry-leading business in search, online advertising, media, and social networking.
We are absolutely committed to being the leader in each of these areas. Now is the time to do what we have always done best--be tenacious, focus on the long term, innovate, and keep working hard.
I want to thank all of you for your patience during this process and for your dedication and hard work across all of our businesses. We asked that you remain focused on our goals through these cycles, and you have done this extremely well. We are committed to making the investments that will enable us to compete and, ultimately, lead in the online services and advertising businesses. Together, I know we will succeed.
Steve
Oh Well Too bad, I had really hoped this merger would go through for entirely self serving reasons noted previously. That said, huge huge kudos are due to Jerry Yang and his impressive team. I have to wonder just how much sleep they managed to get over the past 3 months since Ballmer's 'unsolicited' kick in the teeth; they have been busier than a one-legged man in an arse kicking contest. Here is a rundown (I plan on updating it soon to bring it up to date) on what Yahoo was up to for only part of that 3 month process... it is a long list.
Here is the introductory paragraph for a little taster:
"Mobile web browsing is gaining popularity and acceptance thanks to the extensive proliferation of iPhones and other mobile appliances with surf-friendly interfaces. As a result it is becoming more and more important to offer a mobile-friendly alternative to your current website. The reality is, however, that many website owners seem to have no inclination to spend money on a medium that (as far as they know) is unproven and could generate zero income. Fortunately there is a way for every website owner to create an alternative to their website and not only is it exceedingly simple but it is FREE. Now no one has an excuse to ignore this growing medium!"
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 2:40 PM
In the first quarter of 2008 earnings are up, employees are down, Microsoft started its attempts at a takeover, and Yahoo still found time to get into bed with Google (although the U.S. Justice Department is still out on that one).
First quarter earnings for Yahoo were higher than most experts had predicted. Sales rose by 9 percent to $1.8 billion, with an increase in net income by a sizable 282% to $542 million, compared with $142 Million for the same period in 2007. These profits were largely in thanks to Yahoo's investment in the initial public offering of Alibaba.com which accounted for $401 million.
In mid February Yahoo also laid off approximately 1000 employees, thus taking a significant chunk out of their payroll. While this would account for only a small percentage of the increased profit, considering that many of the layoffs involved fairly prominent and higher paid employees, it likely totals up to a sizable amount.
Analysts were expecting revenues at $1.32 billion excluding acquisition costs yet Yahoo's first quarter revenue was, in fact, about $300 million higher at $1.35 billion.
This recently announced increase in Q1 profits has not had an impact on Microsoft’s acquisition attempt. Back at the start of February Microsoft had offered $31 per share in an unsolicited bid to purchase Yahoo and since then Yahoo has been battling this Microsoft takeover. On Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, according to the Seattle Times, "Yahoo’s quarterly results would not affect the value of Yahoo to Microsoft." Microsoft has also threatened that if things are not resolved by this Saturday, they will bring a lower bid directly to Yahoo shareholders.
As part of a search to find alternatives to the Microsoft takeover, Yahoo announced a test where 3% of paid ads appearing on US based Yahoo searches would actually be from Google’s AdSense program. The test is expected to last up to two weeks. According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, this has sparked the U.S. Justice Department to look into possible antitrust applications - no word yet on the results of that investigation.
By close of day Wednesday, Yahoo shares were down $0.15 closing at $28.08Yahoo shares rose sharply by about 50% back in February with the news of the possible Microsoft buyout, and have hovered around the $28 mark ever since.
Yahoo's earnings release for Q1 of 2008 can be downloaded in PDF form from Yahoo Investor Relations.
This is the second in a series of articles intended to convey my personal impressions of managing PPC through Google Adwords, Yahoo Panama and MSN Adcenter.
If you missed part one, you can view it here. Today I will be covering Yahoo’s Panama. Of the three, this is my least favoured, so I’m wearing my Yahoo Search Marketing ball cap today, to remind myself not to allow too much vitriol to slip into the article.
Interface
Logging into a Yahoo account brings you to the Dashboard. This is an overview page containing basic account information, along with any alerts. Also on this page is a drop down menu allowing you to shift to different accounts under your master account. If you are advertising in multiple countries this is useful for easier access without requiring multiple logins, though these accounts can only be linked by Yahoo support personnel.
The dashboard also contains a table which allows you to view either top performing campaigns, ad groups or keywords at a glance. The nifty thing with this table is it allows you to view at a glance items you have set up on the watch list. This is useful for quickly viewing items of concern and allows you to select from a drop down menu, watched campaigns, ad groups and keywords.
One of the things I like about Panama is the use of colour to highlight various features. Particularly when I’m creating new campaigns or ads, these buttons stand out very well. Also, the capability of different colour fonts and sectional backgrounds eases the look of pages that would otherwise appear cluttered with all sorts of information.
The dashboard is the first of 4 tabs, the others being Campaigns, Reports and Administration.
Campaign
The Campaign tab contains 5 links to navigate back and forth:
Campaign: A table showing all the account campaigns and basic performance information for each.
Ad Groups: Shows basic performance data for all ad groups, listing also which campaign each ad group belongs to.
Keywords: A table showing all the keywords in the account with basic data and lists which campaign and which ad group each belongs to (very handy feature this).
Editorial Status: contains status listing of pending, declined and removed ads and keywords.
Search: Allows search for campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads. I am not sure why this page exists as essentially the same function is available on each of the other pages.
One thing to note, with exception of the search page, all of the above can be viewed for specific date ranges using a fairly robust date range selection system.
Reports
Reports can be saved in several different formats. Performance reports can be saved in CSV for Excel, CSV, TSV and XML, while financial reports can be saved as either PDF or TXT. Reports can be set up for either the campaign, ad group or keyword level to view overall performance data. There are also optional views for geographic location, daily spending and URL performance. There is an option to use saved templates, but it is limited to 5 saved configurations.
Administration
Under the administration page, you can find the account details and edit billing and budgetary options, set up alerts, change tactics, set up different account users and assign permissions. You can also choose up to 250 domains to block placing content ads on.
The Tactics selection includes the ability to turn on or off either Sponsored Search or Content Match, set match type to advanced or standard and add keyword exclusions. This is kind of an odd spot to put these; one would normally expect to see this in campaign level settings, but it seems Panama is only capable of this at the account level. A definite minus for flexibility.
There is also a link for analytics (where you can set up conversion tracking) and one for tracking URL’s. The first time setting up conversion tracking, I found the interface to be quite confusing, but it was just the choice of labeling that threw me off. You must ensure “Conversion Only Analytics” and “Analytics are enabled” are both activated in order to have the conversion tracking function.
Campaign Setup
Setting up is an 8 step process.
First thing is naming the campaign and setting up geo-targeting. You can select Entire Market or specify by region or specific city/area. There are some pitfalls to watch out for here. If you haven’t read my previous article on this you can find it here.
The second step is creating an initial ad group and defining tactics.
Now it is time to input your keywords. You can get suggested keywords at this point, have this tool scan a URL for suggestions or input your own list. Excluded (negative) keywords may also be input here.
Next step is to set the ad group default maximum bids for sponsored search and/or content match. One thing I really like about this stage is a side graph that shows estimates for average position, number of impressions and clicks, average CPC (cost per click) and the percentage share of available clicks. This graph updates to changes in the set bid, so is useful for gauging where to set your max.
The next step is writing the ad itself. Two things to watch out for here; one is the long descriptions and the other, the display URL. Yahoo does not allow long descriptions and has not for quite some time, beyond me why they have not taken it out of the set up process. The display URL input box is hidden and you need to click the little bullet arrow to view. It really does not save much space doing that, so I have no idea why it is designed like that.
After this stage is review, which takes you back to the second step and you can edit any errors along the way, or you can just choose to move to stage 7…
Which is the budgeting of the campaign and setting up a display schedule if necessary. There is a display estimates feature that allows you to view monthly clicks and impressions for varying schedules.
The last step is reviewing and activating your campaign.
Learning Resources and Certification
A while back I studied for and passed my certification examination to become a YSM Ambassador for StepForth Web Marketing. Having gone through this process prior to this with Google AdWords, I was somewhat dismayed at the learning resources available for using this interface. Whereas AdWords has a comprehensive learning center with video and text modules complete with relevant quizzes for each, Yahoo only offers a very brief, scant slideshow with no quizzes. Most of my learning had to be done the hard way, meandering through their help sections.
The overall difference in quality and difficulty between AdWords and Panama exams was pretty obvious. But at least Yahoo allows professional accreditation, unlike MSN, whose recently implemented program is only available for US residents.
Annoyances and Oddities
These are some of the gripes I have with Panama I have not covered in previous articles. I will try not to foam at the mouth too much.
As with MSN Adcenter, the timeout seems much too short. While writing this article I was using an existing account to view different sections of the interface. I had to re-log into the account dozens of times. I would write a few sentences, go back to look at something and more often than not I would find myself logged out.
Some of the labels and wording are not ideally descriptive. One example I mentioned earlier has to do with conversion tracking. Another instance regards ad display rate. In AdWords, you can adjust ads so better performing ads get more exposure. There did not seem to be a feature in Panama, until I clicked on the “optimize ads” button. I thought this was some sort of tool to suggest ad changes but after reading the lengthy description I realized it is for displaying the “best” ad.
The campaign “Tune up” tool is of questionable value. I ran a test on this and the recommendations given were pretty doubtful. Basically, the tool recommended I up the daily budget by 350%, jack up the keyword max bids (in some cases quite dramatically) and change some match types. The estimated rewards for providing Yahoo with this additional spend were a 2% percent improvement in CTR (click through rate), a 20% increase in clicks and no estimation on conversion changes. All this with only a 4% increase in monthly cost. Regardless of any of the other estimations, I cannot equate a 350% increase in daily spend equaling a 4% increase in estimated spend.
Setting up campaigns, especially ones with lots of ad copy, is laborious and time consuming. There is no option for uploading work or any tools to make this a smoother process. It is either do it from scratch or a lengthy cut and paste session from a spreadsheet. To give an example, I recently set up account in all 3 engines. It took roughly a half hour to get everything set up with the AdWords Editor tool and uploaded. Then having saved the campaign information in CSV format from the AdWords Editor, I uploaded the file into MSN Adcenter, set up the bidding and activated the campaign. This took all of about 10 minutes. Finally, setting up the same campaign in Yahoo, took over 3 tedious hours of copying and pasting.
I mentioned the “hidden” display URL box when writing ads which is annoying when first setting up. If you are creating new ads however, even in an entirely new campaign in an existing account, by default the original display URL is set in there for every new ad in the account. So if you are using a different domain, you have to ensure you open up the hidden entry box and change it for each ad. There is a way around this, but it is obscurely set in Administration under the account set up page.
Also, if you are modifying ads, your modifications will not show until the changes have been approved, which can take several days. By this I mean you cannot even see the changes you have made until the ads have been approved. (This caused me quite a bit of grief recently, as I was required to do a massive overhaul when a client renamed all the URL’s on their site - it was very annoying to be unable to double check my changes upon completion.)
My last and biggest beef with Yahoo is the quality of their support. I have worked with first tier support in the past and I know the drill. The incidence of skimming the first line or so of a support request and firing back a template response which generally has nothing to do with the context of the support request seems to be higher than most here.
My perception of the quality of first tier staff training diminishes with each successive phone call. When trying to figure out the problem which led to the discovery of certain geo-targeting issues, we went through quite a few emails and phone calls before finding someone with an adequate grasp of their system to understand what was wrong.
In another case, a support saga of epic proportions, I received 5 successively different, nonsensical explanations, none of which addressed my actual question. Sensing the circular pattern of this, I struggled to get direct contact up-tier. Incredibly, one rep actually told me editors aren’t allowed phones, to keep them impartial. When I finally got put through to an editor, I was initially told more of the same, but upon realizing I wasn’t buying it, he simply went ahead and fixed the problem. Quite an ordeal and a completely unnecessary waste of time.
While it is obvious some of the complaints I have about the design of this system are fairly trivial, these little problems can add up to a serious, unnecessary increase in the amount of time required to work with this interface, particularly in large campaigns. It is my hope that Yahoo can expend a little more effort to improve Panama’s usability.
Summary
Over the course of writing this article, I realized there are quite a few things I do like about this interface. If they made it a little easier to work with and especially if they improve their customer support, I would have no qualms about using this interface.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 9:22 AM
As posted at Yodel Anecdotal, Yahoo has developed and launched a new website targeted at women. Unveiled on Monday, Yahoo! Shine "features the best writers and bloggers in women's publishing". It helps "connect like-minded women, share stories, and more".
Shines editorial team features editors from Lucky, Jane, and the Wall Street Journal. They created Shine to appeal to a large demographic of women and give them a "smart, dynamic place for women to gather, get info, and connect with each other".
Content found on Shine is derived from some the best of the best, and features works from women at Glamour, Self, Cosmo, Women's Health, and more. Shine does not focus on "how to please a man" or "lose 10 lbs fast" but rather more real world, intellectual content, as well as entertainment news.
While many women appreciate and seem to be quite pleased with the site, this is not the case across the board. One woman commented "It's a rather scary thing that Shine is being pushed as the place for women when all that's on here is fluff." In a reply to that post another writes "Yes I have to agree sadly. I hoped it would cover more real issues but seems to sadly fall inline with too many women's magazines."
If they can boost this site to appeal to the majority of women then this is a great move on the part of Yahoo, Just look at all the money Oprah has made creating an empire geared primarily towards women! I'm curious to see how well this site ends up doing, however, aside from visiting Shine today to write this article, I doubt I will personally be spending much time there. Time to go rebuild a carburetor or watch some football.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 11:57 AM
How would you like to change the way your site rankings appear within the search engines? I am not talking about the ranking itself, but rather the listings appearance. This idea may soon become a reality, at least at Yahoo, with the introduction of Yahoo Open Search.
“..instead of a simple title, abstract and URL, for the first time users will see rich results that incorporate the massive amount of data buried in websites -- ratings and reviews, images, deep links, and all kinds of other useful data -- directly on the Yahoo! Search results page.”
Rafe Needleman at Cnet reported on the announcement made by Yahoo at SMX West Tuesday noting details on how exactly this program will work have not yet been released. It does appear that both new and small sites will continue to have their listings displayed as they currently are, with the new customized appearances being available to larger sites such as the New York Times.
A formal launch date has also yet to be announced but is expected within the next couple of months. With the ability to make your listing appear more attractive (and to encourage clicks) this is certainly a feature that will be welcomed by webmasters.
Written by Andrew Clough and published at 11:03 AM
Yahoo Search is aiming to show more useful information on its results page. Yahoo state's it will eventually "enable 3rd parties to build and present the next generation of search results". This includes bringing data found within a website like ratings and other useful information into it's Yahoo search results page. Instead of just a website's URL and abstract on its results page Yahoo will include "ratings, images, deep links, and all kinds of other useful data". Although this is still in the works the plan is to let websites "regain some control over how their content is presented without allowing them to actually muck with search result ordering."
Great Q & A from people working with social media (Lee Odden, Shana Albert, Neil Patel, Jane Copland). Topics include good sites to promote content, attracting links, social media as a marketing strategy, and an insiders guide to Social Media.
Google Maps is now including a "refine by user rating and neighborhood system" to its search results of local services (hotels, restaurants). So whether you are downtown or uptown you can find more specific and user rated search results.
Yahoo is changing its minimum bid for PPC. Depending on what keywords you are targeting your minimum bid can now be under the previous .10 cent minimum. Although this will not affect any competitive keywords it will likely help to lower costs of targeting smaller niche markets.
Combining marketing with social networks can be a great way to spread your message through word of mouth and viral marketing campaigns. If they become popular they will drive exponential traffic to your website. In " What makes a Successful Marketing Campaign on Social Networks?" 9 key attributes are given that are shared by the social media campaigns.
I enjoyed this great interview of Jeff Quipp of Search Engine People as he gave his secrets of the SEO business. He placed SEO as part of your overall marketing strategy. He gave his views on linkbuilding, linkbaiting, an insiders guide for new bloggers,and how he became head of his own SEO company. He also looked into the crystal ball for the future of SEO and what search engines will be crawling some time soon.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 3:03 PM
Over the past few days there seems to be a lot of action with Google and Mobile search. As the advancement in mobile technology continues, the major search engines are finding their place in this infant marketplace to seek out as many advertiser dollars as possible.
Google Searches Abundant on iPhones On Wednesday, Google reported that it has seen more mobile searches by users using Apple iPhones by 50 times that of any other mobile handset, according to the Financial Times. This shows that the increasing use of mobile search will prove to be a significant source of revenue for Google and others involved in mobile search into the future, but the statistic had Google second guessing.
"'We thought it was a mistake and made our engineers check the logs again,' Vic Gundotra, head of Google's mobile operations told the Financial Times at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona."
Gundotra went on to note that the number of mobile searches could outnumber that of fixed internet searches "within the next several years" if other manufactures improve the ease of web access as Apple has.
Google Loses T-Mobile in Europe to Yahoo The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Google has lost its contract with T-Mobile (Europe) as they signed Yahoo as their preferred mobile search provider. Yahoo's growing mobile presence is also one that Microsoft is undoubtedly eyeing in their multi-billion dollar take-over attempt.
Yahoo signing with T-Mobile is a significant move given that Google's partnership with the mobile operator was one of the first of its kind. Starting in March Yahoo's mobile oneSearch will be used by default by T-Mobile customers in 11 European countries.
This may not be as big of a hit against Google as Gundotra notes "Users want an internet without fences. They know how to type in Google.com if they want to get to it. Two years ago the operators were still playing the role of gatekeepers but that is no longer the role for them."
Google Search Offered on Nokia Handsets Tuesday, Nokia announced a deal to offer Google Search to customers worldwide.
Google will now be the default search integrated into new select Nokia handsets. The deal will offer users faster, easier access to online information from their mobile devices as well as the ability to search the handset itself for any content they have stored within it.
Nokia offers easy searching only one click away from the active standby screen. By increasing the ease of use, ultimately it will increase the number of users taking advantage of the feature.
"Providing choices for our consumers is an important driver in Nokia's Internet service strategy," said Ilkka Raiskinen, vice-president, software and services at Nokia. "This integration allows our consumers the ability to use the innovative search technologies, which have made Google almost synonymous with Internet search.
Nokia and Google have had a previous relationship. Last year the Nokia N95 became the first mobile device to support YouTube, and Google Search has been available on Nokia Internet tablets for some time now.
Over the past week I have been keeping the StepForth SEO Blog updated on the events focused on Microsoft's attempted acquisition of Yahoo and the fall out since. This is becoming quite a debacle so I thought a little chronological update on how all this went down might be useful.
From 2006 to Now
2006: Rumors abounded that Yahoo and Microsoft were in talks about working together and that an acquisition was possible. However, nothing substantial was revealed at the time but we later learned that Yahoo refused to work with Microsoft.
May 4th, 2007: The rumor mill was working overtime that Microsoft was quietly trying to acquire Yahoo for $50 billion. I was elated :-)
Jan 22, 2008: The New York Times reports that Yahoo is expected to layoff hundreds of staff in order to boost profitability and share prices. The quarterly earnings report is eagerly anticipated on Jan 29th.
Feb 3, 2008:Google's David Drummond weighs in on the hostile bid by Microsoft citing concerns that a potential purchase of Yahoo by Microsoft "raises troubling questions". He goes on to ask "Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet?" Check out this hilarious interpretation of Mr. Drummond's blog posting by Kara Swisher.
Feb 11, 2008:Microsoft promptly responds to Yahoo's rebuff with a 'gloves are off' tone. In the letter Microsoft says it will "ensure that Yahoo!'s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal."
Feb 12, 2008: Yahoo exec Bradley Horowitz leaves Yahoo and moves to Google. Bradley was head of Yahoo's Advanced Technology Division and his departure is only the beginning of a long list of talent that is likely to leave Yahoo over the coming months. See Bradley's bio and you will see why this respected man's departure will hurt. To his credit, however, Bradley insists his departure was not directly due to recent events.
Feb 13, 2008:Yahoo announces an acquisition of online video company Maven Networks. Why? "Video is projected to be the fastest growing segment of the online ad market, and Maven will significantly help advance Yahoo's strategy, expanding the video opportunity for publishers and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness for advertisers."
Sniff... sniff... I smell desperation! This is yet another rallying cry from Jerry Yang to help keep Yahoo from the slobbering jaws of Microsoft... unless of course Microsoft offers $35 or $36 a share at which point OKAY.
So What Now? First of all, forget about Google saving the day. I would put money on Google being out of the picture for any possible partnership with Yahoo; Google is just not interested in the certain SEC ramifications of such a partnership.
With that potential path closed Yahoo has had to look elsewhere. As a result there are rumours that News Corp and Yahoo are talking in an attempt to forge a deal that could counter Microsoft's.
Meanwhile Yahoo is facing pressure from all sides to make a move that appeases the company's particularly distressed shareholders and they had better do something soon. Otherwise, (this is hard to believe) matters could actually get uglier.
Feel free to republish this article under the following conditions: the posting must credit the author (Ross Dunn) before it begins and it should include a permalink back to this original posting (without a nofollow). Thank you.
Microsoft released the following official statement today in response to Yahoo's denial of the $44 bn dollar offer and I highlighted Microsoft's fully-expected overture towards a hostile takeover:
It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies. Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties.
We are offering shareholders superior value and the opportunity to participate in the upside of the combined company. The combination also offers an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market.
A Microsoft-Yahoo! combination will create a more effective company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. Furthermore, the combination will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising.
The Yahoo! response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal. As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.
The nastiness is about to begin as Microsoft is likely to launch its first publicly hostile takeover of another company.
May 3, 2008 
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb
These are some of the gripes I have with Panama I have not covered in previous articles. I will try not to foam at the mouth too much.
