Microsoft+Yahoo, Microsoft+Facebook versus Google

Ed: Microsoft+Yahoo, Microsoft+Facebook versus Google. Is data portability the strategic issue?

He’s Just Not That Into You, Steve: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Mark Zuckerberg

from AllThingsDigital -- WSJ by John Paczkowski

 If Microsoft is buying, Facebook ain’t selling. Commenting on rumors that Microsoft may soon acquire the 98.4% of the social networking phenom that it doesn’t yet own, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he’d prefer to keep things as they are now.

Why Microsoft will buy Facebook and keep it closed

from Scobleizer -- Tech geek blogger by Robert Scoble

It no longer is about Data Portability or Social Graph Portability, if you will.

I’m hearing these rumors too that John Furrier (my ex-boss) is reporting. That Microsoft will buy Yahoo’s search and then buy Facebook for $15 to $20 billion. Add that to all the news that Microsoft is buying Yahoo’s search and that gets very interesting.

That just changed the whole argument of Facebook vs. Google to one of Microsoft vs. the Web.

Think about this just a second.

Let’s say Microsoft gets Yahoo’s search. That doesn’t look that brilliant. After all, we know Google is gaining share there and taking Yahoo’s best advertisers (and let’s just forget Microsoft’s efforts, which have been an utter failure so far).

But these two moves would change everything and totally explain why Facebook is working overtime to keep Google from importing anything. First, let’s look at what is at stake here:

Loic Le Meur did a little test with me a couple of weeks ago. He listed his Le Web conference on both Facebook and Upcoming.org. Here’s the Facebook listing. Here’s the Upcoming.org one...

Pursuit of Yahoo Shows Microsoft Needs a Franchise

from NYT - Technology

Fighting Google, Microsoft has approached Yahoo with a narrower aim: a collaboration on Internet advertising.

After Google calls Facebook’s bluff, Zuckerberg says “let’s see if there’s a way to make it work” 

from The Social Web by Steve O'Hear

Facebook said today that it's willing to sit down with Google to explore a way forward. Talking at a news conference in Tokyo to launch a local language version of the site, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: "We want to talk to Google about this and see if there's a way we can make it work."