There’ s been some speculation about a new, purple Yahoo logo. I know it was more than speculation, I saw it with my own eyes: if you opened www.yahoo.com in Firefox, you saw the purple logo for a split second, then it was replaced with the good old version.
But none of this matters anymore, here’s the new, authoritative Yahoo logo:
Tags: Google, Humor, logo, yahoo, yahoo logo, yahoogle, yoogle
I often need to share a document with a few reviewers / contributors, and I hate sending attachments. Attachments are redundant, wasteful, and if you start marking up different copies of the same document, then emailing them around, you’re in for a major version-control nightmare.
The clean solution: share an online document. But which platform to use? I use Zoho applications, widely recognized to be the best. But until today, there’s been one obstacle to unlimited, open collaboration: users had to create a Zoho account first. Not that it was complicated (30 seconds?), but some people will stay away from apps requiring account registration as a principle.
The solution? Well, if you have any sort of online presence, chances are you already have an account either with Yahoo or Google. From now on you can use these credentials - yes, your Google / Yahoo account - to log in to Zoho applications. No more worrying whether the other party can access your shared documents.
The Zoho team points to a poll ran by Lifehacker last year. Obviously there are more Google than Zoho users. But look at the reason: most already have a Google account, and refuse to create another one for Zoho. Those who actually tried both system prefer Zoho by a 3:1 margin. So it clearly made sense for Zoho to remove the bottleneck and open up to their systems.
But I suspect this is just the beginning. TechCrunch France Editor Ouriel Ohayon and ZDNet’s Dennis Howlett raised the issue of mass importing one’s Google documents to Zoho. I think it would make sense, although I don’t necessarily like importing - it’s a one-time shot.
Why not just make all documents available to online users, no matter where they were created? You should be able to list your Google and Zoho documents, open them, edit them, and save to whichever format (and storage) you want to.
Either way I’m sure we’ll see more open access and collaboration coming soon. 
(Disclosure: I’m an Advisor to Zoho)
Tags: Collaboration, Google, SaaS, web office, yahoo, zoho
This is a shameless reprint of my post exactly two months ago:
Yahoo running to AOL to avoid assimilation by the (Micro-)Borg? Hm… I don’t know which one is worse. (Actually, I do.) The funny (actually, sad) thing is, most of my Best MicroHoo quotes apply to a Yahoo/AOL situation, you just have to replace Microsoft with AOL
Personally, I think the Microsoft and Yahoo matchup is like two tired swimmers who bump into each other and then wind up drowning each other in their scramble to survive. But Yahoo will be the first to go under in this embrace.
It’s like taking the two guys who finished second and third in a 100-yard dash and tying their legs together and asking for a rematch, believing that now they’ll run faster.
Imagine a circus act in which two enormous, clumsy, awkward elephants that don’t really like each other are supposed to mate while riding on skateboards.
Oh, well… a sad soap opera. 
Related posts (a few of the many): Silicon Alley Insider, TechCrunch, BoomTown, BloggingStocks, Technology news, Tech Beat, HipMojo.com, Deal Journal, Mark Evans, TECH.BLORGE.com, BuzzMachine , MarketingVOX
Tags: acquisition, aol, feke steve jobs, fsj, Humor, mergers, microsoft, yahoo
This was supposed to be a good day for MyBlogLog: they released a shiny new widget. Not that they announced it.. so let’s start the conspiracy theories:
they knew it didn’t work, so wanted to keep it secret
The reason I discovered the new widget was un unrelated (?) glitch: all of a sudden it does not know me. It’s not a cookie/browser issue, last time it happened was around the conversion to Yahoo logins, and they said it was account-related. (see Tired of Repeatedly Signing in to Mybloglog). Of course I started to search for similar problems and found a user talking about the new widget. Congrat’s, a well-kept secret!
OK, let’s install the new goodie. Oops, I hate the color choices and they won’t let me customize them…. oh, well.. go ahead anyway. Blog comes up blank. Again. Again. Hm… as it turns out, the MyBlogLog Widget can’t hold the new script. I’m not kidding, save it, come back and see it all blank.
There’s of course a simple solution: forget the plugin, just open up a new text widget and copy the script there. Voila! Here’s the new, shiny-yet-ugly widget.
Except it (widget and site) still does not remember who I am. And I refuse to login every single time.
Update: Webgrrl can’t install it, either. Well, here’s your fix!
Update: the widget code is now fixed.
Yahoo running to AOL to avoid assimilation by the (Micro-)Borg? Hm… I don’t know which one is worse. (Actually, I do.) The funny (actually, sad) thing is, most of my Best MicroHoo quotes apply to a Yahoo/AOL situation, you just have to replace Microsoft with AOL
Personally, I think the Microsoft and Yahoo matchup is like two tired swimmers who bump into each other and then wind up drowning each other in their scramble to survive. But Yahoo will be the first to go under in this embrace.
It’s like taking the two guys who finished second and third in a 100-yard dash and tying their legs together and asking for a rematch, believing that now they’ll run faster.
Imagine a circus act in which two enormous, clumsy, awkward elephants that don’t really like each other are supposed to mate while riding on skateboards.
Oh, well… a sad soap opera.
Tags: acquisition, aol, feke steve jobs, fsj, Humor, mergers, microsoft, yahoo
There’s hardly anything new to add to the MSFT/YHOO story, except two great quotes.
Personally, I think the Microsoft and Yahoo matchup is like two tired swimmers who bump into each other and then wind up drowning each other in their scramble to survive. But Yahoo will be the first to go under in this embrace.
It’s like taking the two guys who finished second and third in a 100-yard dash and tying their legs together and asking for a rematch, believing that now they’ll run faster.
Now, for the best part: this last one isn’t from FSJ, after all.. it’s from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer himself. (that is if you can believe anything a blog with Fake in the title says)
Ballmer said he loved when his rivals merged, because whenever the also-rans in any market start teaming up they might as well be waving a white flag. Because it’s over. You’ve beaten them. You’ve driven them to despair. They haven’t been able to beat you on their own; there’s no way they’ll do it together. Then he told me that line about the hundred-yard dash.
Btw, this Fake Steve post is not exactly short of great metaphors. Here’s one describing the post-merger integration (you know, the stage where all mergers fail):
Imagine a circus act in which two enormous, clumsy, awkward elephants that don’t really like each other are supposed to mate while riding on skateboards.
and this one:
That giant buzzing sound you hear is the whirring of photocopiers in Redmond revving up and spitting out resumes.
It’s worth reading in full.
Update (2/4): Robert Scoble’s version: Put two turkeys together and you don’t get an eagle.
Tags: acquisition, feke steve jobs, fsj, Humor, mergers, microsoft, yahoo
After all the speculation, it finally happened: there’s a Microsoft (MSFT) offer on the table to acquire Yahoo (YHOO) for a mix of cash and stock valued at $44.6 Billion, which is about a 62% premium to Yahoo’s current market valuation. Well.. current as of yesterday, when it closed at $19.18 - right now, pre-market it trades at $30.80, almost at the offer price of $31. (I suspect some early buyers will regret that…)
Update: Here’s the “you’ve failed” part from Steven Ballmer’s letter to the Yahoo Board, fully quoted on ZDNet:
In February 2007, I received a letter from your Chairman indicating the view of the Yahoo! Board that “now is not the right time from the perspective of our shareholders to enter into discussions regarding an acquisition transaction.” According to that letter, the principal reason for this view was the Yahoo! Board’s confidence in the “potential upside” if management successfully executed on a reformulated strategy based on certain operational initiatives, such as Project Panama, and a significant organizational realignment. A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved.
A few early posts, before the world wakes up
: Between the Lines, Irregular Enterprise, Search Engine Land, TechCrunch. Parislemon’s title (and pic) is telling: Join us - or die!.
Tags: acquisition, microsoft, yahoo
The time has come, Mybloglog is now forcing the use of a Yahoo id. This came out of the blue to me, at least the Flickr merger went more gracefully, with ample warning for a long time. OK, it’s not that bad … except that I’ve just logged in for the fourth time today. My login does not stick! Leigh calls it the Yahoothanization of Mybloglog - I call it a **** up. 
If you have a Gmail account, check the ever-growing counter at the bottom: it stopped counting. My Google apps accounts are frozen at 2048MB, non-branded gmail accounts at 2886MB. (I was wrong, the counter still runs. Thanks for the correction, Tony ) Which is not to say you can’t get more storage, as we know yesterday Google announced their pricing:
6 GB - $20.00Some say it’s a rip-off: I tend to disagree… or let’s just say it depends what other Google services will be covered by the “shared storage”.
It’s already more than just Gmail, so it’s not fair to compare it to Yahoo Mail, which offers unlimited storage (who really needs unlimited email?). Besides, productivity-minded hardcore Gmail fans who find Yahoo mail inferior won’t switch just for the sake of free storage. Features count, after all. Talk about which, you do have to pay to get some of features, e.g. POP access on Yahoo Mail - that’s free on Gmail.
The Flickr comparison isn’t fair, either. Granted, if all I want is unlimited photo storage, a Flickr or Zooomr Pro account is a better deal - but Google has more goodies in their bag.
Think of what happens if when Docs and Spreadsheets - or whatever the eventual name will be, when it includes presentations, JotSpot ..etc. - will become all covered by the shared storage package. Now you have a complete productivity suite on the Web. Not counting photos, music and videos, it’s still hard to reach stratospheric storage requirements - but as you use Word, Excel less often, and most of your “new” stuff is in the cloud, you may start wondering if you should have ALL your documents uploaded, searchable, linkable, backed-up - the whole enchilada.
Both Yahoo and Google have a range of services, and very different pricing policies. Comparing storage on its own is misleading: we should look at the overall value we get from a full productivity suite + storage. If Google chooses not to charge for the apps, only storage, it’s not a bad combo, overall you can get more functionality for your $ then with Yahoo. $20 a year ($1.66 a month!) does not seem that much. By the way, you’re likely spending more on Microsoft Office now
Related posts: Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim, Search Engine Land, Between the Lines, Computerworld, ParisLemon, Insider Chatter, Google Blogoscoped, Googlified, Mark Evans, Geek Speaker, VentureBeat, Web Strategy, jkOnTheRun, Googling Google, Damien Mulley, Download Squad, Mashable!, mathewingram.com/work.
Tags: gmail, gmail storage, Google, google docs & spreadsheets, office 2.0, web 2.0 business model, web office, yahoo, yahoo mail
Zoli Erdos
