What do you use to search the Internet? If you said a search engine — you missed my point. I guess a better question would be — what search engine do you use to find stuff on the Internet? Whichever your favorite is, Microsoft’s big bid to buy Yahoo! could change your search habits in the future.
I’m willing to bet most of you reading this are like me: You use Google most of the time, after that Yahoo!, and maybe MSN (now called “Live Search,” I think, though why Microsoft made the change is beyond me) as a distant third choice. Oh, sure, a few of you probably just search from whatever website you’re at regularly, maybe even using Ask.com, or whatever that’s currently called.
The point is this: Microsoft has tons of money and HATES being in third place regarding ANYTHING related to the Internet. I mean, think about it. If you were the guys who owned Internet Explorer, the most-used Internet browser in history, would you want to own such a lame search engine as MSN?
By purchasing Yahoo!, Microsoft gains the second-rated search engine along with some subsidiary companies. They still probably won’t be able to beat out Google, but it’ll be a start.
The bigger question is: A year from now which search engine will you be using? That could get interesting if this Microsoft buyout of Yahoo! happens.
Technorati Tags: Internet search engines, Microsoft, Yahoo!, MSN, stock buyouts, just a guy who reads the papers