Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Google - Who Loves Whom?

Part I

Some of you may be wondering why I haven't weighed-in on the Microsoft/Yahoo!/Google thing going on.

Well, I'll be honest with you, I went into great depth and detail in a drafted post. It was copiously cross-linked, fairly well-researched, and got pretty down-to-the-dirty... and I scrapped it. Just up and threw it out. I wanted to make certain everyone understood what I was saying when I said it.

See, no matter what else is reported, there are a few basic things you need to know about the Web, search engines, portals, and general history - things most of the people covering the Web today probably aren't even aware of. If they are, they likely did not go through it directly, as I did. If they did, they probably weren't right in the middle of it as it happened, as I was. If they were, then this story should be receiving better coverage!

You probably think you know all of this already, but I'm going to break it down for you anyway. I do not mean to talk down to you - I am not trying to insult your intelligence! - I just want to clearly define the terms and lay it all out as plainly and simply as I can, so as to avoid confusion. Also because there is a lot of overlap and there are discrepancies.

A search engine is a database of websites and pages culled by robots and spiders; it is not (or very rarely) indexed or checked by humans; a search directory is an index of sites and pages put together by humans.

A community can mean many things, but is (at its most basic level) comprised of like-minded individuals who contribute to a common theme and/or utilize a common function, site, or other object. Examples of communities include individual newsgroups, forums boards on websites, and chatrooms. Communities facilitate social networking but are not synonymous; communities often form through social networking, though.

A portal is a starting-point for entering the WWW. Exactly as the name connotes, it is a "doorway" through which a user accesses the Web; in days past, portals were sometimes referred to as "on-ramps" to the "Information Superhighway." Portals generally consist of an interface which allows you to access many different functions and objects without having to surf to several sites and/or initiate several programs.

A monopoly is when one entity exclusively owns or controls a commodity, product, or service. It is illegal because such power and influence allows the controlling entity to unfairly limit competition, fix prices, and literally extort consumers and other businesses.

Yahoo! was always a portal; Google was always a search engine; Microsoft was always a monopoly.

Now, many readers are saying, "Wow! You really are Old School, MD! The 'Information Superhighway'? I haven't heard that term since I was 5!"

Duh.

Throughout the years, these functions, roles, and even the terms themselves have become blurred. However, we are concerned with these entities' original roles - how they entered the market. All businesses change and growth is necessary for continued success, so we are not suggesting these businesses limit themselves according to how they originally defined themselves when they first entered the marketplace; we are going to explain how it is that Google - originally a search engine - became an online monopoly equivalent to Microsoft's computer-based monopoly, through the auspices of becoming a portal.

Further, we're going to delve into how dangerous the proposed Microsoft - Yahoo! merger is, as well as how dangerous it could be if Yahoo! "teams-up" with Google to defend itself against Microsoft's aggressive, and unsolicited, advances.

But, even though I knew this would be a lengthy post, I wasn't quite prepared for just how long it was going to be, so I'll divide these entries into several parts...

© C Harris Lynn, 2008