Microsoft Hungry! Must Feed!

Mircosoft isn’t done yet.

A week after Yahoo! denied their takeover attempt, Microsoft is now going after Facebook, according to Epicenter.  Apparently, they need to spend a ton of money.  If I had tens of billions of dollars, it would be burning a whole in my pocket.

In all seriousness, Microsoft went from trying to buy a proven commodity in Yahoo! to trying to buy what could be a flash in the pan in Facebook.  Microsoft is desperate to get in on the digital ad and promo business.  Yahoo! would have made a good partner for them and they could have done some great things.  Facebook and Microsoft together will accomplish just as much as they could apart, nothing but pissing users off with annoying ads or invading privacy.

What it could do, however, is make Yahoo! jealous.  It wasn’t long ago that Yahoo! tried to buy Facebook.  If Microsoft succeeds, it could temp Yahoo! into a deal with Microsoft.

Obamania

Barack Obama has achieved such success in this year’s election process partly because the of his campaign’s extremely effective online promotion plan.

It all starts with his website. It’s clean, well-designed and very user friendly. But his success goes far beyond an aesthetically pleasing website. It’s the content of the site that really drives this campaign.

The site has a blog that is updated not just daily, but hourly at times. His email newsletter always uses the current political situation to promote donating to Obama and points readers to landing pages where they can easily donate.

There’s the popular Barack TV that shows highlights of Obama’s speeches and appearances.

There’s even an Obama Mobile page. Ringtones featuring clips of Obama’s speeches set to music can be downloaded.

It doesn’t even stop there. Obama even has a social networking page where supporters can team up, meet up, and even compare who is the biggest Obama supporter.

There’s so much on the Obama website that it would take too long to list and describe it all.

The Obama online strategy is so effective that it has turned his campaign into the most successful grassroots campaign ever, rivaled only by Ron Paul. This election is history making not only because of the candidates, but because every campaign in the future will copy Obama’s online promotion plan. It’s that good.

Microsoft Fed up with Yahoo!

For weeks now, Microsoft has been bullying Yahoo!.  Microsoft knows that buying Yahoo! is the key to beating Google not only in online search, but also in online advertising.  Yahoo! has resisted the whole way, even with Microsoft threating to go to their stock holders.

On Sunday, May 5, Microsoft got tired of the games and decided to withdraw its offer for Yahoo!.

So what does this mean in terms of digital promotion?  It means that Google will forever be king.  I know that there are Google haters out there that are just waiting for the search giant to step on the toes of internet users and betray its motto, “Don’t be evil”, but they will be waiting a long time.  Google is a company of geniuses.  They understand how to pace themselves and make software that is ready for people to use.  Yahoo! and Microsoft are giants in their own right, but they just have never gotten it.  Google makes stuff that works and is easy to use.  Because of that they now are the dominant force.  Sure, Microsoft and Yahoo! could make better software and try to get back what they lost, but that’s not how they know how to do it.  All they know is brute force.  Microsoft realized this and tried to buy Yahoo! because they knew it was the only way they could overcome Google was to muscle Google out.  Microsoft buying Yahoo! would’ve been the same as Barry Bonds going to BALCO.

To bad for Microsoft.  Without the muscle that Yahoo! would’ve provided, Google will dominate the world, still.