Comment: Microsoft can't buy Google's cool factor

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 8 May 2007 at 11:12

Microsoft's proposed merger with Yahoo! shows just how desperate the company has become in its battle with Google.

No matter how much money it throws at its online services, Microsoft can't seem to generate the same buzz that any new Google product attracts. The company has completely revamped Hotmail but it continues to wilt in the shadow of Gmail; Windows Live search is a flashier facsimile of Google search, but is still losing ground on its rival. Even when Microsoft produces superior products, such as the superbly executed Windows Live Maps, it struggles to gain the kudos it merits.

So now Microsoft is attempting to buy in the Web 2.0 magic dust. With fashionable brands such as Flickr and Del.icio.us in its portfolio, Yahoo! would give Microsoft something it can't manufacture itself - credibility.

Yet, whilst the rising stars of the Yahoo! portfolio might well give Microsoft a short-term image boost, there's a lot of excess baggage that comes with Yahoo! that clashes with Microsoft's own products. Could the merged company continue to operate competing search, webmail and messenger services? Or would it try and roll them into a single (presumably) Microsoft brand, with all the technical and bureaucratic problems that ensue?

Big technology mergers are notoriously difficult. Sheer scale is no guarantee of success. AOL Time Warner has been an unmitigated car crash, while HP and Compaq took several years to work through the enormous conflicts created by their troubled union. Microsoft - which is already watching Google disappear over the horizon - simply hasn't got years to get it right.

Having been out-muscled by the search giant in its bid for online advertising firm DoubleClick, Microsoft now appears to be settling for a very expensive second prize. Microsoft has traditionally bought-in its most successful products, but Yahoo! isn't the off-the-shelf answer to the company's problems.