In admitting that Google might have over-hired, Eric Schmidt made me think that Google was in some ways becoming like Yahoo!, who itself went on a hiring binge that pushed up its headcount to over 12,000.
Of course, with the government looking to block Google’s $3.1B deal for Doubleclick, Google is also becoming reminiscent of Microsoft…
Yahoo!, is today sounding a lot of like Microsoft, who wants to defend its software business and take on:
- Google in search
- Yahoo! in web portals
- Sony and Nintendo in video games
- Apple and Sandisk in digital music players…
How so? Today Yahoo! said it was going to make one more run at YouTube in video, while it continues to make dents in Google’s search business. Oh, it’s also trying to become relevant in social networking, after being turned down by Facebook last year, rumors crept up that it was eyeing Bebo, UK’s largest social network, but no Facebook.
Ah, the more things change…
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August 6th, 2007 at 10:24 am
I hope Yahoo can hang in there and survive not only Google/Microsoft, but also the current social networking craze which feels eerily reminiscent of 1999 (long term business plans need not apply.) Given the current Facebook valuation, I hope Yahoo (and GOOG/MSFT for that matter) stays FAR away. I do worry about a Facebook IPO being the catalyst that finally pops the bubble when its relatively paltry revenue is finally realized after all that hype. But maybe that reality check is just what we need right now.
The world also needs a third strong player in Yahoo, which still owns arguably the best collection of sub-properties on the web. Unless they can acquire somebody like Bebo for cheap, they need to just stay in-house and consolidate their own great offerings under their own blanket ’social’ service.