The most irritating thing on my mind right now is the proposed merger of Microsoft and Yahoo!. This is because so called "industry analysts" are writing about how Google will remain number one regardless. I don't know what school these people went to or what planet they live on but they are seriously misguided and mis-informed. Not only that but they are really wrong in thinking that Google can ever knock Microsoft out of its place as the number one reason that people use IT.

Google is only number one in one regard, search engine popularity. This is directly connected to their advertising business which is number one only because they control the environment of the advertising. This standing is a fleeting thing, it could change over-night. Google is nothing more than a long term trend. There is nothing that Google provides that would cause world panic if suddenly the company did not exist tomorrow.

Now while Google is rapidly trying to fix the fact that they are very expendable they are still a long way from getting there. Googles projects and give-aways are not a threat to Microsoft. Now is Microsoft a threat to Google? Yes! If you count the facts that Microsoft has the most popular desk top software, web browser, desktop office package along with a whole lot of other free to the user number ones like instant messaging. It easy to see how the proposed merger would give them a new opportunities to grab dozens more number one spots in IT. After all Yahoo still has the number one used email service and they are number two in the search engine branch. Yes, that's right. Not number five or three but number two!

Well, since we are talking about threats is Google a threat to Yahoo! Have they really ever been? No! Yahoo! is a company that remains a constant threat to Google if ever their search-engine top spot is lost. A lot of gibberish about Google having a solid 60% of the market means nothing. Ask Microsoft. They know a bit about how percentages of a market delivering a free service or software can be lost. Just look at how Firefox is constanlty eating into their piece of the pie.

So if you are sitting there thinking that Google is not being threatened by the takeover. Then think again. You can fully expect that Google will start in with a campaign against this merger now! They will use every trick in the book along with the time honoured "Microsoft is an evil monopoly". They will cover up the fact that many countries in the last year have seen Google as being too dominant in the search engine industry and are desperatly trying to come up with state run solutions. The thing is Google never considered their ideas a threat.

Google is kind of like a heavy-weight champion that has had a long reign. The champ does not think he can be touched. Then one match later a contender comes in to the ring and gets the champs attention by knocking him on his smug ass in the first round. Now suddenly its a fight. This is what Microsoft has done with its bid for Yahoo!. They have knocked Google flat on their butts and said "respect us!".

Happy Publishing!

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