Alan’s Angle – Is Yahoo! Entertaining You?

By Alan Johnson

I’ll be the first one to admit that things have definitely been interesting the last couple of weeks, with Yahoo! obviously in the spotlight: Microsoft’s bid, Yahoo’s letter to their shareholders, all of the merger scenarios and Microsoft’s unwillingness to raise their bid.

If I were to describe these events using just one word, it would have to be “entertaining”. Aside from the way things have unfolded, I personally find people’s reaction to be even more entertaining. Under such circumstances, it’s refreshing to observe how Google haters are trying to make this seem like the beginning of the end for them, how they live in denial and think that somehow, a competitor will put an end to their reign and make the Web a better place.

Google haters? Microsoft haters? Yahoo! haters? It always amuses me when I see others taking sides with so much passion. On the other hand, I do tend to feel sorry for the ones who don’t understand how things actually work. Isn’t it about time for a wake-up call?

Google is a business, Microsoft is a business and, you’ve guessed it, Yahoo! is a business as well. Rest assured, none of these companies have making the Web a better place or making your life as a webmaster easier on top of their priority list. It’s all about money, it’s all about profits. Leaving hypocrisy aside, I think it’s pretty fair to assume that anyone in their position would have the same attitude. Google could care less if they help you, and, rest assured, Microsoft and Yahoo! feel the same way.

“But all of them try their best in order to deliver relevant results” will most likely be the instinctive reaction for some. But let’s try to understand why they’re doing that in the first place. No, they’re not doing it out of the goodness of their heart, they are doing it in order to attract users so that, you’ve guessed it, they make money. They are doing it because it’s in their best interest, not because, for whatever reason, they want to help you or make the Web a better place.

In this industry, being emotional and starting to blindly take sides will get you nowhere. It’s strictly business, and the sooner you understand how things stand, the better. Instead of living in denial and thinking that some mysterious competitor will appear out of the blue and save you, as a webmaster looking for a decent traffic source, from Google’s attitude, why not see things as they really are and take it from there? Who knows, you might just realize that you never needed to be saved in the first place.

About Alan Johnson

This post was written by Alan Johnson, the author of The Online Business Handbook.