Google has come out with some "fightin' words" (Jeff Jarvis) against Microsoft and its proposed buyout of Yahoo. In a rather disingenuous post on the official Google blog, senior VP David Drummond warns:
So 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? Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions -- and consumers deserve satisfying answers.
Link: Official Google Blog: Yahoo! and the future of the Internet.
As the New York Times and others are pointing out, what Google is really doing here is getting back at Microsoft for opposing, and slowing, Google's acquisition of DoubleClick. Neither of these behemoths really has "openness and innovation" foremost in their minds.
I love Google's products, but they shouldn't be the sole arbiter of what's right for the internet. If a company like Ask.com had raised concerns out competition with this new deal, that's one thing, but Google whining about it is kind of laughable.
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