Microsoft has just made a
$22bn bid for search engine and portal company Yahoo, a move that if successful would put Microsoft ever closer to Google in terms of its share of the online search market.
But as someone who has never been a great fan of the all-in-one approach of MSN, AOL or Yahoo, I wonder whether what we're in fact seeing is the beginning of the end of such portal-based services.
As the web has moved from a geek haven to an indispensable tool for almost everyone, the handholding approach of these portal-based services maybe losing its appeal. People are now much more likely to go straight to the sites they're interested in rather than wading through the ad-festooned pages of a portal, a trend that's possibly reflected in the poor financial results and staff layoffs reported by Yahoo for the last quarter of 2007.
Whatever the outcome 2008 is certainly shaping up to be an interesting year.
Kelvyn Taylor, Editor in Chief, Online
www.pcw.co.uk
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