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Volto a fazer referências ao negócio Microsoft – Yahoo porque será sem dúvida interessante para quem faz negócio online e se preocupa com a optimização para motores de pesquisa e com a publicidade contextual. Toda a especulação e guerra de palavras vai ser interessante. Ao artigo no blog do Google, a Microsoft repondeu prontamente. Seguem os detalhes.

David Drummond, um dos vice-presidentes do Google disse que:

…Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.

Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies — and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.

Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft — despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses — to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors’ email, IM, and web-based services?

Ao que Brad Smith da Microsoft respondeu:

The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising. The alternative scenarios only lead to less competition on the Internet.

Today, Google is the dominant search engine and advertising company on the Web. Google has amassed about 75 percent of paid search revenues worldwide and its share continues to grow. According to published reports, Google currently has more than 65 percent search query share in the U.S. and more than 85 percent in Europe. Microsoft and Yahoo! on the other hand have roughly 30 percent combined in the U.S. and approximately 10 percent combined in Europe.

Microsoft is committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy on the Internet. We believe that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will advance these goals.

Não sei até que ponto o Google faz bem em se pronunciar. Medo do negócio não terá, mas certamente que fazia melhor em manter-se afastado. Sobre as políticas de privacidade, não sei até que ponto é que hoje o cruzamento de toda a informação que o Google possui das contas de Gmail, Adwords, Adsense, Google Reader e Webmaster tools (entre outras), não poderão estar a ser usadas de forma abusiva. A minha dúvida vem por ex do facto de ter alguns sites que vendem links e que foram penalizados – nada a dizer sobre isto – mas tive outros sites sem qualquer tipo de publicidade ou venda de links que foram penalizados sem razão aparente. Acho que a razão está na partilha das webmaster tools para vários sites.

Provavelmente dentro de uns anos vamos todos estar a queixar-nos do Google e como teria sido bom se não tivesse tido o monopólio.