Yahoo might do it again. In a year that has seen great growth and comeback for them, there is a plan for Yahoo to purchase Tumblr. Tomorrow, there’s a meeting to debate buying Tumblr for over a billion dollars in cash.
This hip youth-oriented blog site has been under Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s eye for weeks. At first, the talk started with just investing. Now, it’s turning into outright takeover. This is an attempt for Yahoo to reach the youth audience. As of April 2013, Tumblr has over 107 million blogs, more than 50 million blog posts, and about 37 million members. Tumblr claims it made $13 million dollars in revenue last year. So yes, I can see why Yahoo is salivating. But this is by far the biggest purchase Yahoo has ever attempted. What is the deal goes downhill? What if they buy Tumblr than it fails? They’re out of a billion dollars and have nothing to show for it.
This is one of the reasons I’m against this purchase. Yes, I’ve been singing the praises of Yahoo lately, but not this time. Tumblr is doing fairly well by itself. Obviously, so is Yahoo. Why do this? Call me a sucker for small business, but I don’t like it when companies merge like this, unless it’s an absolute necessity. I see no necessity here. In America, there’s free market enterprise. When you have large companies swallowing up successful smaller ones, that kills the free in free market. Then there is the censorship issue. If Yahoo buys Tumblr, whose to stop them from restricting?what bloggers say? The freedom of self-expression is what makes Tumblr successful. ??Is this potential buyout a good thing or the worst mistake Yahoo has ever made?
Here are some historic company rivalries for you: Coke vs. Pepsi, McDonalds vs. Burger King, All State vs. State Farm, Exxon Mobile vs. BP. Can we add Google vs. Microsoft to this list?
This isn’t the first time Google and Microsoft have butted heads, and it probably won’t be the last. One time, Google sued the US gov’t for not recognizing it’s bid for a cloud email system. Google probably wouldn’t have sued if a contract hadn’t had gone to Microsoft first. Now they found something else to fight about. Google is now asking…no…make that demanding Microsoft take You Tube off their Windows phone app list.
This time the root is advertising. Google claims the You Tube app’s lack of ads is in violation of the You Tube API. They also claim Microsoft created the app without Google’s consent or knowledge, and did so to deliberately cut into their profits. The lack of ads also hurts the advertisers. This is going to cut off a great source, thus increase competition and prices elsewhere, causing harm to the system itself. Google CEO Larry Page hardly?held back about his feelings for Microsoft : “…we struggle with people like Microsoft.”
Will this rivalry ever end? I doubt it. There’s been some collaboration, like Google’s talk support and Microsoft’s webmail service coming together.?Hey, sometimes we have to work with people we don’t?like. But I have a?feeling this dispute is?going to trump this attempt. So I close by asking, can they both get along?
Later this week, Google is holding a conference for the ages. I’m no fortune teller, so I can’t predict what they’re going to say. But here are a few expectations, and they are high!
One is a new updates for their Android system. There’s a lot of talk of?the 5.0 Key Lime, but don’t get your hopes up, at least not this year. Some are expecting?Google’s version?of the 7-Inch Nexus tablet to come out,?and there’s talk of an 11 inch tablet. We could even see Google and Motorola’s first major collaboration. Changes in?Google maps can?also be expected. And you know Google Glass is going to be a topic, if not the main event.
Well, I have mixed reactions about this conference. Obviously, Google?has made a huge difference in all our lives. Those Google maps?sure do a?better job than those paper maps. And which would you rather use for research, Google search engine or an encyclopedia? And these changes in?these online powerhouses can be for good. Note I said?can be.?I’ve read a lot?about Google putting projects off. That can increase expectations, or that can?just turn?consumers off. Remember the Boy Who Cried Wolf, and when the wolf did come people didn’t care anymore because?of the previous false alarms? Learn that?lesson Google. And the maps…Google has lead the world in quality mapping. If?they change that, what if it turns into Apple maps? And don’t even get me started on this Google glass thing. But what?do you think??Will Google’s expectations be blessings or curses?
Facebook is now very much in the mobile race. In recent months they’ve released Facebook Home, an Android based service that makes sure you’re never Facebook-free. If you’ve read my earlier blogs, you know how I feel about that one. But FB isn’t stopping there.
Facebook is now partnering with Waze, an Israel based traffic and navigation app, for the sake of integration. It’s rumored Waze has been offered around a billion dollars for their services. There’s even talk of bringing all Waze offices to the USA. If this deal comes to past, it would be Facebook’s biggest purchase since Instagram, which cost around $750 million. Was the deal worth it? That depends on who you ask. As of April 2013, Facebook has 750+ million mobile users. I access it on my?Apple device.?In 2012, Facebook surpassed one billion users. ?They say the next billion users will come from countries like India and China, with their booming economies and population growths.
Let’s look at Waze. They have 47 million users, more than twice the users they had last year. The majority of those users are outside the US. Both companies are keeping hush about this possible merger. But this makes perfect sense to me. But Facebook, let’s do this right. Learn a lesson from Apple maps, and what a fiasco that was. And if FB and Waze can come together and reach out to rising economies like China and India, that would be an economic dream for both companies. Plus, let’s say someone using FB gets lost in a foreign land. They can just go on Waze and find their way. What other ways can both companies benefit? Or is this merger a bad idea?
I’ve reported about social media security issues several times this week. Let’s look at some major media hoaxes since 2010:
10. 83 and Tired: Bill Cosby allegedly posted a Facebook rant claiming he was 83 and tired of the nation’s problems. Not only did Dr. Cosby not write it, they didn’t even get his age right (he’s really 76). He went on national TV to clear his name.
9. Bald For Bieber: When a false report leaked that heartthrob Justin Bieber was diagnosed with cancer, a tweet?urging his?fans to go bald launched. Sadly, some did.
8. Facebook’s Gold Package: A couple of years ago, Facebook was to start charging $9.99 a month for Gold membership. Guess what? Facebook is still free, and that gold package was a golden egg.
7. Back to the Future:?So far this decade, Back to?the Future Day was in 2010, then in 2012. Both are wrong. According to Back to?the Future?II, the travel date was?October 21, 2015. Sorry Doc and Marty fans, you have to wait another?two 1/2 years.
6. Fake Celebrity Deaths:?What do Jackie Chan, Taylor Swift, Morgan Freeman and Eddie Murphy have in common? According to false Facebook posts, they all died this decade! So the next time you hear a celeb passing away, check a more trusted source!
5. Mante T’eo Girlfriend: He went from a promising Notre Dame Linebacker to America’s joke. This bizarre hoax involving a fake girlfriend even landed him on Dr. Phil.?Was he that na?ve or was he?even playing?along with the hoax?
4. Facebook?Shutting Down: An Internet rumor went around saying Facebook was going to shut down because founder Mark Zuckerburg wanted normalcy. You know they stopped that rumor real quick!
3. Hurricane Sandy Photos: Some of these look like?the Day After Tomorrow movie. They?even had sharks swimming in malls. Many of these pictures look more like Revelation’s apocalypse than a super storm. I’m sure if they would’ve stuck with real pictures of this?natural disaster, the meaning would’ve been even more powerful.
2. You Tube Shuts Down: According to the April Fools?joke in 2013, You Tube?was just a big video competition that was going to end on April 1. Good one!
1. Twitter Hoax Nearly Shuts Down Wall St.: To this point, these hoaxes have been cute, funny, and generally harmless. This was?everything but a laughing matter.?This hoax lied about President Obama’s security, sent stocks crashing, and in the wake of the Boston Marathon tragedy, could have sent America into chaos. I shutter?to think?what would have happened if?this social?media hoax continued.
Can you think of any social media hoaxes, since 2010, that top these?
By now, many people have discovered they can boost their social life and express themselves by using social media site Twitter. Some have discovered they can speed up the process by creating phony Twitter followers.
According to two Italian researchers, fake?Twitter following?has become a multi-million dollar business. One can get 1,000 phony followers for under $20. And this research says this market is by no means limited to the underworld.?Major corporations from Pepsi to Mercedes-Benz?have been called?out for suspicious?number of Twitter gains and losses in one day, so have some U.S. politicians, even celebrities. There are over 20 million fake Twitter followers out today. And last year, as a conservative estimate, $40 million dollars were made from fake Twitter followers.
The difference between Twitter and Facebook is that Facebook requires emails for sign-up. Twitter, it’s a lot easier to pull off phony followers. Do I have a problem with this? Yes and no. From a business standpoint, I understand why people and corporations would use this boost. You may not get that many likes on Facebook, but if you got a bunch of Twitter followers, real or not, you suddenly look really good! On the other hand, it’s not really the same as getting real life people as followers. In some ways, it almost feels like cheating. Plus, Twitter is working to get rid of fake followers, so they’re not going to last long anyway. So what do you think of fake Twitter followers: a good thing or a fraud?
