Here Comes Another Bubble

I saw this video back in December, and I still can't get it out of my head. It's a very amusing and catchy video:

Microsoft's Bid for Yahoo

I'm sure you've already heard the news of Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo for a staggering 44.6 billion dollars. It seemed to spread like wildfire across the media. Clearly, the internet business is booming. But like Microsoft in the software business, the only true internet giant is Google. They have far surpassed Yahoo! in their key market of advertising. And then there's Microsoft, late in the market, and trailing behind, struggling to keep up, using cash as leverage.

The internet business is changing the way the software industry works. After the core functionality is created in an internet company, significant upgrades no longer seem like a necessary task. Instead, small increments of change are put online, creating a steady stream of upgrades, fixes, features, and tweaks. This way, users notice changes quicker, and don't have to wait several years, and migrate to an alien product.

In the search based ad-market, Google has a 75% share of the market, while Microsoft and Yahoo combined, have only an 18% share.[1] Microsoft's investment into Yahoo could prove a wise investment, but only if the hard task of integrating the new company into their internet infrastructure is done properly -- a daunting task considering the size of Yahoo.

In the end, the revenue gained from advertisers comes down to the question, "Which services provide better payback in terms of money?" Right now, Google's simple ad-words advertising seems to be the best, with their easy and comprehensive data compilations of who viewed and clicked ads. Another important factor is that Google's ad program seems to be more diversified throughout the internet, with more websites choosing Google ad-words over other forms of advertising.

So in the end, is it a wise buy by Microsoft? I'm really not sure, but one thing is clear, if Microsoft plans to one day make a significant revenue from advertising, their current strategy isn't much better.

What is your opinion on Microsoft's bid for Yahoo?

Sources:
[1]Microsoft Bids for Yahoo: Do Two Losers Make a Winner?

An Education Aggregator

For all of you who have jumped in on the open education of large universities, there is a site out there to help you manage all of them. Called Lecturefox, it's what appears to be an education aggregator. Although it seems aimed towards computer science, chemistry, mathematics, and physics, it does have more topics. I think it should have some changes to allow easy searching of more specific topics, but all in all, it has a very simple interface and should cause little confusion. I recommend checking it out, and seeing if there's a topic that interests you.

Link: Lecturefox

Shuttle Announces $199 Linux Box, $99 Barebones Kit

Shuttle has announced that they are making an adventure into people's Linux lives with a $199 dollar Linux box and a $99 barebones kit. Launch dates have not been announced yet. As you can see, these sound like awesome deals, although the specs will make or break them I guess.

Link: Engadget

A .Com Service in 24 Hours

Here is an interesting article about how the website Wigitize.com was built in about 24 hours time. It really goes to show how we are in another garage technology age at the moment.

Link: Building a .Com in 24 Hours

Bill Gate's Retirement Plans (Last Day CES Clip)