LiveSide - News blog : Yahoo

Yahoo! announces newly revamped services, we (finally) notice

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:59:21 GMT

We missed commenting on this earlier in the week when it came out, but Yahoo! made an announcement regarding its newly revamped set of services, including Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, and search. Featured among the changes are:

a new streamlined design (yup, Windows Live has that)
3rd party apps (WL: well not really, unless you count in-house services like SkyDrive and Calendar, or additions to the profile page)
enhanced photo sharing (yup, ~~Windows Live has that~~ – oops, it’s turned off at the moment)
increased attachment limits (umm, WL Hotmail trails all mail services listed in this Wikipedia comparison at 10mb – the new Yahoo! will have 25)
more social features (yup, Windows Live has that)
mobile email features (Windows Live has that, but Yahoo! has announced support for downloading pdf and Office attachments and access to personal folders)
video calls (yup, but Yahoo! is featuring full screen calls. Is that coming for WLMessenger?)
Yahoo! Insider (this sounds like the Today page. Doesn’t everyone just turn that off?)
language selector (does the Bing Translator bot count?)
improved iPhone app (ummm, no – just POP for Mail or 3rd party apps)

In addition, Yahoo! is testing a new search results page (??), which sounds a lot like Bing Jr. The Bing-Yahoo! partnership is a year away at least, even if it does clear regulatory hurdles, and these new changes are the result of engineering that happened before the partnership was announced, so not too surprising to see continued innovation for Yahoo! search, now and moving forward.

This will be interesting to watch moving forward, as Windows Live is in direct competition with Yahoo! services, but at the same time Microsoft needs Yahoo! to succeed in order to drive Bing traffic. Will Wave 4 return serve? We should find out soon.

Carol Bartz, CEO Of Yahoo!, Willing To Sell Search For “Boatloads Of Money”

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:43:00 GMT

In an entertaining, slightly off color, and by some accounts inspiring performance at D: the All Things Digital conference, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz left the door open for a search deal. That deal would have to be made with someone with the right technology, the right data, and “boatloads of money”, according to numerous tweets coming from the conference. C-NET’s Ina Fried is there and has more.

When asked if Yahoo! was talking to Microsoft, she replied “yeah, a little bit”. Yesterday there was speculation that a new LLC may be being formed to create a new corporation to deal with a Yahoo!-Microsoft search partnership. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to unveil “Kumo” (or “Bing”, or even “Yahoo! Search”) tomorrow at D. It’s unclear whether he will announce either a new name or a search partnership.

A live blog recap of the interview is up now, and the video will be up soon. ~~We’ll get a link up as soon as we can~~. The video is available now.

Sifting through Trademark applications: Kumo, or Sift, or who knows what?

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:39:00 GMT

All this business about what the new name for Live Search might be has a lot of blog writers and journalists turning over all kinds of rocks, including lots of fun with TESS, the US Patent and Trademark Office’s online trademark search feature. We’ve posted before on our diggings through TESS regarding Kumo, and indeed there’s been some slight movement in that department: the USPTO has sent a letter to Microsoft (on April 16), asking for a narrower definition of what Kumo would be used for, and noting that Microsoft might need to cough up some more cash:

The wording in the identification of services needs clarification because it is too broad and could include services classified in other international classes.

…

Therefore, applicant must either (1) restrict the application to the number of classes covered by the fee(s) already paid, or (2) submit the fees for the additional class(es).

The filing fee for adding classes to an application is as follows:

$325 per class, when the fees are submitted with a response filed online via the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) …or

$375 per class, when the fees are submitted with a paper response.

Yikes, in this tough economy, will Microsoft be able to afford another $325?

Then in an article posted today, our friend Joe Tartakoff of PaidContent.orgspotted the names Sift and Swivel. We’re not sure about Swivel (an application for “operating system software for mobile phones”) but from our eager perusal of the Sift application, it appears to our non-lawyer trained eyes that the application was rejected, although not finally. In a document from the USPTO sent March 30, 2009:

Registration is refused because the applied-for mark merely describes the function of applicant’s goods and/or services. Trademark Act Section 2(e)(1), 15 U.S.C. §1052(e)(1); see TMEP §§1209.01(b), 1209.03 et seq.

A mark is merely descriptive if it describes an ingredient, quality, characteristic, function, feature, purpose or use of the specified goods and/or services.

Applicant is applying for the mark “SIFT” for “computer programs for searching email, text messages, address and contact information,” in relevant part. The definition of “sift” is “to go through especially to sort out what is useful or valuable <sifted the evidence> —often used with through<sift through a pile of old letters>.” The attached excerpts from the Lexis/Nexis® database evidence that software may feature a sifting function. The applicant’s software is for sifting through email, text messages, and contact information. Thus, “SIFT” is descriptive of applicant’s goods in accordance with Section 2(e)(1) of the Act.

Although the examining attorney has refused registration, the applicant may respond to the refusal to register by submitting evidence and arguments in support of registration.

This is fun stuff, wheee!

None of these actions are final, and none of them tell us a dang thing, truthfully, as to what Microsoft’s intentions really are. We have a feeling that a Yahoo Search deal may have something to do with naming and branding, and who knows, we may see “Yahoo Search by Microsoft” as a new brand when it is all said and done, but for now, we’ll keep digging just like everyone else.

Microsoft would still “like to sit down” with Yahoo! on search deal

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:08:00 GMT

The Times Online reports today in an interview with Microsoft COO Kevin Turner that the door is still open to a search deal with Yahoo!:

In an interview with The Times, Kevin Turner, chief operating officer of Microsoft, extended an olive branch to Carol Bartz, the new chief executive of Yahoo!, making it clear that a smaller deal regarding a partnership on search functions was still part of Microsoft’s thinking.

“They have a new CEO, and she’s formulating her business plans,” Mr Turner said.

“We’ve certainly made her aware and the Yahoo! board aware that if they are ever interested in an opportunity to partner with them on search, we’d like to sit down and at least have the conversation. It has to make economic sense to both parties.”

Microsoft has repeatedly said that a deal to buy Yahoo! is off the table. It remains interested in a search deal, and there are at least some indications that Yahoo! may remain interested as well. Bartz may be willing to talk, although privately, according to remarks she made at a Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in early March:

"I said this to Mr. Ballmer, I will not negotiate with you and 30,000 of my closest friends. I will negotiate privately," said Bartz, adding to investors, "If something happens, you will know about it then."

Last week Yahoo! reverted on some changes it had made to its employee severance plan in the heat of last year’s takeover attempt by Microsoft, and settled a lawsuit brought by Yahoo! investors over the severance plan. Lawyer for the Yahoo! investors Joel Friedlander thinks the settlement could help a Microsoft – Yahoo! search deal:

Friedlander also noted that Microsoft officials saw Yahoo’s revised severance plan as creating “bad retention,” according to court papers unsealed in the case.

“The plan was an attempt to gum up an acquisition by Microsoft,” he said. The accord “makes a search-engine deal more likely.”

Microsoft continues to invest heavily in search, and appears to be readying a new look and a new brand for Live Search, “code-named” (read: float it out there and gauge the reaction) Kumo.com. However it continues to lag far behind in search market share. A deal with Yahoo! would help Microsoft gain share and credibility as it attempts to build a search and advertising base in order to fund search, and web ventures such as Windows Live, Outlook Live, Office Live, and web based versions of Office 14.

Search roundup - More Kumo domains, Yahoo deal still makes sense for mobile growth

Chris — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:32:00 GMT

While talk of the weekend may have been around whether or not a $20bn Microsoft-Yahoo search deal is back on the cards, there were a few other bits and pieces that caught my eye.

Firstly was Mary Jo Foley's post about the continued push to rebrand Live Search as Kumo. Mary-Jo has jumped on some of the vertical search domains now registered by CSC Corporate Domains, including Kumosearch.com and Kumotravel.com. While the continued land grab for kumo domains is a strong suggestion of things to come, the cost to Microsoft of backing out before announcing is still very low.

Secondly was the article I read today about Yahoo further expanding its mobile partnerships. While these corporate strategic alliances/joint ventures are commonplace, one statistic caught my eye. Yahoo is the default search engine for 850million mobile subscribers (emphasis mine). With mobile search and advertising key sectors still not dominated by Google, a Microsoft acquisition of these Yahoo users could be a big contribution to future search growth. (Yes I know subscribers doesn't equal users).

Any other search related stories caught your eye? Feel free to drop them in the comments below.

comScore posts January 2008 search share numbers, Yahoo takes a hit

Harrison Hoffman — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

comScore just posted their search share numbers for January 2008 and it's bad news for Yahoo. Yahoo took a 0.7% hit, while Google got a small 0.1% bump. Windows Live remained the same as last month, so there is not much to report there. Even though Google's search share rose, it appears that Yahoo's lost share went mostly to AOL and Ask. The real question is whether Yahoo's share will continue to fall, or if this is just a fluke. After all, Yahoo was up 0.5% the month before. With a potential acquisition on the horizon, you can bet that everyone will be watching these numbers closely in the months to come

Microsoft, Yahoo!, the merger and Google - Online Video

Sunshine — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:48:00 GMT

First let's take a look at some comScore statistics on this one:

Google Video Sites:
Google Video
YouTube

Yahoo! Video Sites:
Yahoo! Video
Yahoo! Live

Microsoft Video Site(s):
MSN Video (includes Soapbox)

Note: YouTube.com accounted for more than 97 percent of all videos
viewed at Google property.

So what does the above tell us? First it tells us that Google dominates in this area, both in number of videos viewed and unique video viewers. Biggest share in it is taken by YouTube. I have cut out other sites in the above stats (to watch the full table in the source article, click on the table), but a combination of Yahoo! and Microsoft sites would pass the current number 2, Fox Interactive Media (U.S. share: videos watched 3.5%, unique video viewers 23.9%). Fox Interactive Media (MySpace, Photobucket Image Hosting) is owned by News Corporation. News Corporation you say? Isn't Yahoo! in negotiations with them? Yes, they are. More about what's happening in the negotiations area can be found on our Microsoft - Yahoo! Page.

Lots of buzz around online video lately, in particular about live streaming. Yahoo! has recently launched Yahoo! Live. This is an experimental release and got announced on their blog, Y! Live Blog, in Y! Live – The world is watching:

Y! Live was dreamed up as a way to make it possible for anyone to create their own live video experience. Broadcast the concert you’re at. Webcast your own live DJ set. Lifecast....

For viewers: How is Y! Live different from other online video sites? That’s simple: it’s live. What you’re watching, right now, is what other people are watching, right now. We wanted to create an experience that takes us back to live television, where things are happening now, in real time.

For broadcasters: You’ve been posting your stuff to MySpace and YouTube. Now, connect with your fans in real time on Y! Live. There is something intangible about a live performance – an excitement that you can’t replicate in pre-recorded format. Broadcast a performance, interact with your fans with video and chat, embed your broadcast anywhere - it’s all possible on Y! Live.

For developers: Check out our developer preview of our API and embeddable components, and well as a sample app and tutorial we threw together.....

Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch writes about Yahoo! Live:

Given all the chaos this week surrounding Microsoft’s bid to take over Yahoo, it’s not surprising that a new Yahoo product launch wouldn’t have an abundance of exuberance attached to it....

It is very similar to existing live streaming services like Stickam, Justin.tv and Ustream and Blogtv. Users create a channel, authorize their webcam and start broadcasting to the public. Other people can drop by and watch, or choose to participate via video, sound or text chat.

We’re still testing it, but for now the service is very unstable and keeps going down. It’s also clearly got a ways to go with features - videos are not archived for playback, for example, meaning once it’s broadcast live, that’s it.....

I've found an interesting article about one of the live streaming services Michael mentions: Microsoft Looking To Purchase Ustream? Now if this is going to happen it would most certainly boost Microsoft's share in Online Video Land. Yahoo! has only just started experimenting with live streaming and Ustream has established itself as the leading platform for live, interactive microbroadcasting already. Even though Ustream focuses more on broadcasts of events (fits in perfectly fine on MSN Video), rather than streaming individuals, I can see this technique being used for Soapbox (user videos) too. If incorporated fast they may even beat Google to bringing live streaming, as there are rumors Google may offer live streaming from YouTube later this year.

Another factor that will greatly improve MSN Video/Soapbox is the use of Microsoft Silverlight (benefits, such as offering - up to HD quality video on the Web for Mac and Windows today, and Linux later on), which is planned already (probably before this summer according to Nathan Weinberg in the Ustream purchase article).

Can a Microsoft/Yahoo combination compete with Google? I believe so, certainly if Microsoft buys Ustream. What do you think?

Microsoft, Yahoo!, the merger and Google - Instant Messaging

Sunshine — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:42:29 GMT

Time to take a closer look at IM.

Here we can see that worldwide MSN-Windows Live Messenger is taking a big lead, whereas Yahoo! Messenger is taking the lead in the U.S. Google is way behind.

Some features compared:

Instant Messaging Clients	MSN-Windows Live Messenger*	Yahoo! Messenger*	Google Talk*
Add your own emoticons	yes	no	no
Video (webcam)	yes	yes	no
Appear Offline	yes	yes	no
Status per contact	no	yes, stealth online and offline	no
Leave Offline IM	yes	yes	no
Block	yes, right click menu and from conversation window	yes, ignore list hidden in preferences	yes, right click menu
Personal Message**	yes	no	no
Personalized Status**	no	status message with online or busy status	custom message with online or busy status
More	features	features	features

* not taking into account beta versions
** a Personal Message is not directly tied to a status, a Personalized Status is

With Windows Live Messenger you can talk to Yahoo! IM users and vice versa.

One feature Windows Live Messenger users have been asking for for a long time is already available in Yahoo! Messenger, the ability to set your status per contact (be it limited to online/appear offline). Of course you can temporarily block contacts but that would also mean you can not talk to them as opposed to Yahoo! Messenger's Stealth feature:

So should Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger co-exist after a (still possible) merger or....

Microsoft, Yahoo!, the merger and Google - Mail

Sunshine — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:43:00 GMT

Last time we took a look at Search, let us take a look at Mail now.

Looking at the above, the rankings are:
1. Yahoo! - Yahoo! Mail
2. Microsoft - Windows Live Hotmail
3. Google - Gmail

In this area, what would a Microsoft/Yahoo! merger mean? Google is far behind (user base) wether there will be a merger or not. Can Google catch up? Let's compare some (main) features:

Web Mail	Windows Live Hotmail	Yahoo! Mail	Gmail
Storage	5/10 GB (Plus)	unlimited	6 GB+
Attachment size	10/20 MB (Plus)	10/20 MB (Plus)	20 MB for total message
Email Client Access*	Free Windows Live Mail Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Pay Hotmail Plus, MSN Premium	Free retrieval in some countries, SMTP requires Plus Pay Yahoo! Mail Plus	Free
More info	Homepage/wikipedia	Homepage/wikipedia	Homepage/wikipedia

*Not taking into account third party software retrieving mail from webmail services not supporting POP3 access.

What's going to happen with these two (free) webmail services? Will they co-exist, or will Yahoo! Mail disappear into Windows Live Hotmail? If the latter, current Yahoo! Mail users will not be pleased as their online storage will decrease from unlimited to 5 GB. Unless of course Microsoft is going to offer the same for Windows Live Hotmail. If Microsoft does not, do you think that would drive current Yahoo! Mail users to Gmail? And what if Microsoft is going to offer at least the storage space Gmail offers now?

Microsoft, Yahoo!, the merger and Google - Search

Sunshine — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:05:00 GMT

Lots of talk about the Microsoft proposal to Yahoo. Google has made an offer to Yahoo! now too. Looks like the battle over Yahoo! and it's services has begun. Let us take a look at Search.

Search - December 2007	Microsoft	Yahoo	Google
Searches million/share percentage	1,940/2.9	8,505/12.8	41,345/62.4
	source	source	source

Search: Web, Images, Video, News, Maps, MSN, Academic, Classifieds, Feeds, Spaces, Macros

Search: Web, Images, Video, Local, Shopping, Answers, Audio, Directory, Jobs, News

Search: Web, Images, Maps, News, Video, Groups, Books, Scholar, Blogs

In this area, does Google really have to be scared about a merger between Microsoft and Yahoo!? Looking at the numbers Microsoft will have to fight really hard to become the number 1, but how about the features? What do you think?

Yahoo Messenger featured on Analysts Meeting slide

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 01:39:00 GMT

Certainly there are some gems specific to Windows Live in the thought of a Yahoo! acquisition; Flickr, of course (and some Flickr users are none too happy about that), and the sheer numbers of eyeballs a combination of Mail and Messenger clients Yahoo! would bring to Windows Live is another. One very interesting circumstance that springs to mind is Yahoo!'s work on a new Messenger concept: Yahoo Messenger for Vista. That Yahoo! has a product in full development that utilizes the best of Windows Vista and WPF, and Microsoft and Windows Live don't, has been curious, to say the least. Well, and of course this has no bearing on any knowledge of any plans for the Yahoo! product, but it sure is interesting to see it featured in one of the PowerPoint Slides from yesterday's Analyst's meeting:

Does it mean anything specific? Of course not. Is it at least worthy of comment that whoever put together the slides knew enough about Yahoo! Messenger for Vista to feature it in a slide presented by Steve Ballmer? Hmmm, interesting.

You can watch a little video on Yahoo! Messenger for Vista,

or try it for yourself.

Some Background reading on Microsoft + Yahoo!

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:02:00 GMT

Everyone seems to have an opinion about Microsoft's blockbuster announcement (including me), but sometimes it's difficult to sort through all the opinion to get at the facts. Here's a list of factual information, so far:

Microsoft's Press Release announcing the offer (Fri 2/1)
Microsoft's Press Release on the press conference call (Fri 2/1)

Steve Ballmer's email to Microsoft employees (Fri 2/1) (Via Todd Bishop's blog at the Seattle PI)
The Yahoo! email to employees (Fri 2/1) (via Vanessa Fox at Search Engine Land)
Google's response: Yahoo! and the Future of the Internet (Fri 2/1)
Statement from Brad Smith, Microsoft's General Counsel (Sun 2/3)
Microsoft Strategic Update (includes statements on Yahoo!) (Mon 2/4)

We're sure the press and the blogs are going to be full of opinion in the coming weeks and months, and you'll get quite an earful here, too. However we'll do our best to keep the facts in mind as we continue to follow this very interesting story.

Take our poll on Microsoft + Yahoo!

Kip Kniskern — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:23:00 GMT

While we catch up on our reading about the latest acquisition news, we put up a little poll for you to let us know what you think about the announcement that Microsoft has made a 44.6 Billion dollar offer to buy Yahoo! Take a minute and take our poll, on the sidebar to the right, or at this link:

Microsoft + Yahoo- What do you think?

Some more on the acquisition: will Google's revenue model hold?

Kip Kniskern — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 03:02:25 GMT

Interesting that yesterday Ben Romano from the Seattle Times published an article on what Microsoft perceives to be the future of internet advertising, a future that doesn't necessarily value Google's model of contextual advertising in search. He spoke with Brian McAndrews, former CEO of AQuantive and now the Senior Vice President of the Advertiser and Publishing Solutions Group at Microsoft:

"While search has been the main driver of the blistering growth of online advertising in the past, at least partially because of the 'last ad clicked' performance measurement standard (pioneered by Atlas in the late 90s), we do not believe this will necessarily be the case in the coming years. The current system for tracking ad conversions, while the best available for years, is not optimal because it gives all credit to that last ad seen or clicked -- often a search engine -- and not any credit to other ad units the consumer may have seen prior that helped influence the user to seek more information about the advertiser. Thus, Search has gotten more than its share of the credit, but that's starting to change..."

Why is this significant? Well take a look at the numbers for online advertising that just landed in my inbox from comScore:

With AQuantive and MSN.com, Microsoft is well positioned in online display ads, and the Yahoo! acquisition move would strengthen it by a significant margin.

Microsoft to buy Yahoo!?

ScottIsAFool — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:21:11 GMT

This news is hitting the internet pretty rapidly. Microsoft have offered to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion! This move is to try and bolster Microsoft's position in the online services market in its continuing battle with Google. In some aspects, this move can be seen as a shock, but in others, it isn't, after all, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger users have been able to talk to each other for quite some time now. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and what it offers. I'm sure there will be many more discussions on this to come.