http://norman.walsh.name/2008/02/04/msftyhoo 11 18 2008-02-04T22:20:17-05:00 $Date$ Norman Walsh 2008 Norman Walsh Like so many others, it doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I've only given the weblog postings, analyst summaries, and random rantings that emerged following the announcement a cursory glance. I could be off the mark, but the sense I get of the predominant opinion is that (a) the deal will go through, (b) it will be good for Yahoo! stock holders and (c) it will be bad for Yahoo! customers. (In the interest of full disclosure, I'm a member of (c) but not (b). Well, I suppose some 401(k) mutual fund I'm in probably puts me in (b), at least statistically, but not such that I actually know it to be true.) There's something wrong with a system where (a), (b), and (c) can be mutually true, isn't there? Not that I have any better ideas. I was looking over the list of “web properties” that I actually use. Yahoo! owns half of them, roughly, including the only one to which I fork over actual cash on an annual basis. (For the curious, I counted the following sites: del.icio.us, Dopplr, Flickr, Google Mail, SourceForge, and Upcoming. Until recently, I used Bloglines a lot. And, of course, I use lots of other sites, but those are the ones I was counting when I concluded the “half” statistic.) Assuming the deal goes through (and even assuming it doesn't, because refusing the first offer is hardly grounds to imagine that future offers will be refused, see Oracle and BEA), the question is, what to do? Cut and run right away, on principle, as it were? Or wait until Microsoft wrecks the (formerly) Yahoo! properties I care about, on the hope that perhaps it never will? As it were. There's no good answer because I really like del.icio.us and Flickr and Upcoming. More, for the moment at least, than the closest competitors of which I'm aware.