Coming soon: MSGoogle?

[Wonk]

http://news.com.com/2100-1030-5100360.html

(snip)

Google, the high-flying Web search company, recently began holding meetings with bankers in preparation for its highly anticipated initial public offering. At the same time, it was still engaged in meetings of another kind: exploring a partnership or even a merger with Microsoft.

more...

[onebigbadwulf]

1. NOOOOOOOOOO!

A typical MSgoogle search...



Search: "Bush idiot lied WMD"

Returned: 1,234,343 Results

Result 1: You are an idiot for thinking Bush lied about WMD
Result 2: You are an idiot for thinking Bush lied about WMD
Result 3: You are an idiot for thinking Bush lied about WMD
Result 4: You are an idiot for thinking Bush lied about WMD
Result 5: You are an idiot for thinking Bush lied about WMD
Result 6: You are an idiot for thinking Bush lied about WMD
Result 7: You are an idiot for thinking Bush lied about WMD





Google you are our only hope....

[tom_paine]

2. I agree, a Microsoft takeover of Google would be a disaster

Time to start looking for another search engine...

[Moochy]

3. Google not interested in MS advances

If you read the news stories about this one, it says that MS was considering buying google, but google had no serious intention of doing this. They are only releaseing 10-15% of their total outstanding stock in IPOs, and so will be difficult to take them over in a hostile buy-out.

But as was raised on another forum, I think an important point to consider is how will Google's IPO affect their current strategy regarding their ad revenue and the purity of their search results.

Already there are some have been some rumors that google's pageRank system has broken down due to some bad code changes, allowing alot of unscrupulous webmasters to 'game' the search engine alot more and rig their content up in the rankings.

[janekat]

4. Oh no! Was afraid that might happen... Right now MSN uses Overture

for their listings.

[elfin]

5. Google's not interested........ for now

but if/when they go public, there may be the possibility of a hostile takeover down the road. Right now that cannot happen. But if they need some really big bucks for whatever it is they plan to do, they might go for it, foolishly thinking they can still chart their own course. Instead, M$ will shut down any innovations that don't mesh with their stuff.

I HATE M$ - I LOVE Google.

[Woodstock]

6. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

I love Google and I hate Micro$oft

I will NOT voluntarily have anything to do with the other Evil Empire.

So if they do it, it's Goodbye, Google.

[tritsofme]

7. Bill Gates...a partner in the BFEE!

Donor Information

Name: William Gates
Redmond WA

Type: Individual
Date: Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Aggregate YTD: $2,000.00
Amount: $2,000.00
Employer: Microsoft Corp.
Occupation: CEO
Note:

http://georgewbush.com/Donors/donordetail.aspx?id=74783