Is Google Anti-Competitive?

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I have not made up my mind. But Google gets the benefit of doubt from me.

FTC moving closer to Google antitrust case

The majority of top decision-makers at the Federal Trade Commission believe that an antitrust case should be brought against Google Inc, meaning the search giant could soon be headed into tough negotiations ..... Google illegally used its dominance of the search market to hurt its rivals ..... Google rivals specializing in travel, shopping and entertainment have accused Google, the world's No. 1 search engine, of unfairly giving their web sites low quality rankings in search results to steer Internet users away from their websites and toward Google products that provide similar services. ..... Google refuses to share data that would allow advertisers and developers to create software to compare the value they get on Google to advertising spending on Microsoft's Bing or Yahoo. ..... the FTC is looking at Google's handling of valuable patents, which are determined to be essential to smartphones. The agency is trying to determine if they are licensed fairly and whether patent infringement lawsuits are used to hamper innovation.

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But Of Course

Analysis: Yahoo CEO's comeback plan homes in on technology, not media

Her hires, acquisition musings, and other early moves hint at an ambitious, technology-driven comeback plan designed to revitalize aging but well-trafficked properties such as Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports..... Mayer, 37, wants to make Yahoo's properties much more interactive, on PCs and on mobile devices, using social media tools to personalize the user experience and new technology to boost advertising sales. Her well-known focus on user design is expected to result in a simpler, less-cluttered email and home page .... positions Yahoo squarely against Facebook Inc and Google .... Two types of deals are under consideration: companies that will increase user engagement, including on mobile, and those that will boost advertising returns ..... She's spending almost all her time with the product folks ..... Yahoo's advertising technology products, headed for the auction block before Mayer's arrival, are back in favor. De Castro, her highest-profile hire, is known for a deep-understanding of the complex advertising landscape, where dozens of businesses and technology providers are interlinked. ..... Right Media, an automated exchange that allows marketers to blast ads across a network of websites. ..... Roughly 700 million users visit a Yahoo website every month - putting it in the top ranks globally. But the amount of activity people engage in on many sites is steadily declining, and its smartphone offerings are deemed lackluster. .... "The largest change is to be deadly serious about mobile" ..... Facebook and Google, two companies that have taken consumers' time, engineering talent and market value from Yahoo. They are also trying to make the transition to mobile, but it has been difficult

Her mere appointment told me Yahoo now means to do technology, it will no longer aspire to be some kind of a media property. This writer has taken a few months to come to the same conclusion.

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Larry Ellison's Remarkable Hardware Journey

Hardware software integration was Steve Jobs' unique mantra. Larry Ellison seems to have successfully emulated that. Remarkable.

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Marissa Mayer's Gameplan

Marissa Mayer is not Steve Jobs, but I think she is very promising.

The words mobile and personalization capture it for me. Mobile is obvious. Personalization means Big Data.

Vague is good at this point. Gives her more wiggle room.

Executive Change at Yahoo Suggests Thirst for Acquisitions

With 700 million users each month, Yahoo remains one of the most visited sites on the Web, but it has been ceding its share of the online display ad market to rivals like Facebook and Google. ..... Yahoo made its name in search but lost that market to Google and then proceeded to miss the boat on every big Internet trend since. It was too focused on reinventing itself as a multimedia company to notice people were migrating to social networks and mobile devices as gateways for information and entertainment. Yahoo’s home page remains cluttered and sorely lacking a brand of its own.

Mayer to Yahoos at Not-So-Radical Confab: Personalization, Mobile, Rule of 100 Million and — Most of All — the Four C’s!

Very broad, as it turned out, and full of corporate bromides ...... Her goals: To grow users and usage, as well as advertisers and talent, using personalization. ..... Mayer needs to probably paint a much more specific plan for investors to get excited about.

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Yahoo will work very hard on personalization and mobile. .... Yahoo will be strong in mobile by 2015.

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Yahoo — rotten to core? I think so

vague plans at best .... “At Facebook and Google, they know your underwear size before you walk in the door. At Yahoo, it was clear they hadn’t even Googled me,” an entrepreneur who was in acquisition talks with Yahoo

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Engineering, Sales: Equally Important

Marissa Mayer's Blind Spot

Call it high tech and high touch. Engineering and sales are both equally important. And as CEO, even if you have primarily an engineering background, you can not ignore sales. Sales is what is making LinkedIn do well on Wall Street while Facebook is licking it.

Sales does seem to be Mayer's blind spot. Although she has had a great stage appearance since when she was at Google. That is sales.

But product is what has been Yahoo's weakness. And Mayer's focused on product. She will come around to it, I am sure.

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