With Yahoo denied, Microsoft is aiming to improve own search in Europe. Currently Microsoft’s is trailing two percent European market. Most of the search market is dominated by Google.
Yahoo has unveiled an Earth Day initiative to divert mountains of landfill trash, using the Internet to match people unloading “junk” with those that want the stuff. Yahoo is hoping to convince its 500 million users worldwide to join Freecycle.org, a nonprofit devoted to finding new homes for just about anything people are getting rid of.
“Our mission is keeping things out of landfills,” said Deron Beal, who started Freecycle in 2003 and is its lone staff member.
“Junk only becomes junk after it no longer has any use. It is amazing what things people find uses for.”
One Freecycle member put out an online request for socks, with or without holes. She was a school teacher with a class hand puppet project.
Another member gave away a half bottle of left over black hair dye.
Freecycle offerings have included “a box of chocolates, one eaten — take as quickly as possible.”
Beal gave away several tons of concrete chunks left from ripping out his driveway, posting the debris as ‘urbanite” in a Freecycle group.
Source: AFP
Yahoo Inc
Microsoft responded by calling its offer full and fair, but stopped short of saying it would not raise its offer. Microsoft said in a statement it reserves the right “to pursue all necessary steps” without specifying whether it plans to take its bid straight to Yahoo shareholders.
Still, analysts say Microsoft will probably raise its bid, originally valued at $31 a share, to at least $35, but could be persuaded to go as high as $40. Yahoo’s statement did not suggest what price its board was seeking.
Microsoft wants to complete the largest-ever computer technology merger in a bold strategic move aimed at creating a formidable rival to Web search leader Google Inc
It looks as if Yahoo will be dragged down the aisle by its suitor, Microsoft, no matter how loudly Google speaks its piece. On Monday, other potential mates with deep pockets denied they would try to beat Microsoft Corp.’s $44.6-billion offer even as investment bankers tried to help Yahoo remain unhitched.
But Yahoo Inc.’s board of directors can’t simply say no to such a strong offer without providing a better alternative, analysts said, and few options have emerged that wouldn’t outrage shareholders or antitrust regulators. The company that Microsoft and Yahoo fear most in the Internet business — Google Inc. — is trying to quash the deal by also courting Yahoo.
On Friday, the day Microsoft Corp. made its bid public, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang to offer help in fending off the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant, according to a person familiar with the discussion. The companies, which are both based in Silicon Valley, have discussed having Google run Yahoo’s search-engine business.
Some analysts said the Microsoft bid was low because even though Yahoo stock was trading in the teens last week, it had hit the mid-$30s as recently as October. They also pointed to Yahoo’s stakes in Yahoo Japan Corp. and China’s Alibaba Group Holding, which have a total market value of more than $12 a share.
Source: LA Times.
As I have mentioned in my previous post, Wikia Search is now live at http://alpha.search.wikia.com/. The Wikia Search project, which is now live, officially launched in alpha form on Monday 7 January following a brief private testing period.
I tested the search results with some popular keywords and the results were far from impressive.
Anyone is able to discuss and rank search results, write and edit Mini Articles and more bringing the company claims more transparency into the search engine process.
The launch of a new search site, called Wikia Search, is planned for the 7th January 2008. Co-founder Jimmy Wales said the open source search engine would be released for public viewing in “alpha” so users can complain about flaws and developers can work out the bugs.
Last February, Wales announced plans for an open source search engine to offer what Google (NSDQ: GOOG) does not: transparency. He said during a talk at New York University that the new search engine could take the mystery out of how information on the Web is scanned, retrieved, and ranked.
Wikia Search could threaten Google’s hegemony but the new community driven search engine will take time to evolve, just as Wikipedia took time to build up its entries. However Google supporters argue it will allow humans to manipulate the search process and that computer-generated results are the fairest way to provide people with information.
Co-founder Jimmy Wales said the open
A “trust network” of users, similar to those who contribute to Wikipedia, will discuss and debate what should come next. As search heads toward greater personalization, Wales believes people can come up with smarter, more relevant searches than machines. He has said that collective wisdom will improve search more than knowing everything about an Internet user.