Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft, Yahoo and Control of Information

Yahoo and Microsoft: friends or rivals?

Yahoo's relationship with Microsoft is similar to that of Novell and Microsoft. Reminder yourself of our long criticism of Yahoo for political censorship and also censorship against BSD, open source and Linux. The context in which this was mentioned might seem odd. We pretty much praised a Yahoo Vice President for his description of the patent troll epidemic. The fact remains that Yahoo inappropriately handles information.

Yahoo has remained quiet about this issue for several months. Nonetheless, since deafening silence can be more damaging than acknowledgment of an issue, Yahoo finally issued a response to rising criticism of its censorship (I am partly responsible for this by the way). Here is it from The Inquirer:

FOLLOWING OUR STORY, entitled Yahoo caught censoring Open Sauce, some time ago, Yahoo!'s spin machine got in touch to clarify the situation.

[...]

"The Answers incident whereby the user’s response was removed is un-related to our thoughts on open source. The removal was due to human error, and we have since reinstated the answer."


This happens to have made the headlines several months after I had put it at the front page of Digg.com, most probably because I lifted it again from the grave, Matt Asay then blogged it (he reads my comments) and the Inquirer quickly picked it up the following day. Here is Matt Asay's entry:

Slated is suggesting that Yahoo! is censoring out open source on its Answers service. Apparently some suggestions that people try Ubuntu, among other things, have been marked as a "violation of...Community Guidelines or Terms of Service."


Slated is a friend of mine and apparently, Wikipedia's article on "Yahoo" now contains the relevant reference too (according to an E-mail I received just hours ago).

Some might say that Yahoo is a scapegoat here. Could mischievous moderators be the reason for those erased posts that speak about Free software? The rumours about a Yahoo-Microsoft takeover returned to light recently. Examples from the news:

Yahoo's woes also may create pressure on its board to mull a possible sale to a deep-pocketed suitor like Microsoft Corp., which hopes to make more money from the online advertising boom.

Microsoft and Yahoo reportedly held informal discussions about a partnership last year before Yang -- one of Yahoo's biggest shareholders -- became CEO.


Also this: Yahoo's troubles spur new talk of a buyout

Will the company sell its soul and assets to Microsoft, with which it is already quite the partner? It is a worrisome thought, but I have been steering clear off Yahoo for almost a year when rumours first emerged about concrete negotiations between the two companies. At the time, Terry Semel was at the head of the company. And lookie here! Just yesterday Terry Semel completely disengaged from the company. Complete coincidence or complete collapse?

Terry Semel stepped down as Yahoo Inc.'s chairman Thursday, severing his ties with the slumping Internet icon 7 1/2 months after he resigned as chief executive under shareholder pressure.


What news was soon to follow? Watch this very new blog post:

Microsoft Calls Out To Yahoo Employee(s)



[...]

A member of Microsoft's marketing staffing team has apparently sought out at least one Yahoo worker with a "we'd like to chat" message.


Wonderful! As we saw some days ago, those "chat" are a prelude to trouble [1, 2] (the same goes for Novell as we showed last week). Microsoft could truly use some staff in its Web-related division where it has been suffering a major financial blow and a major staff exodus.

But here comes the more worrying bit. A week ago we mentioned possible censorship at Google. If you are too lazy (or hurried) to read the whole overview of this issue, be aware that Google has been hiring many former Microsoft employees. These people can now game various algorithms (including search) and hand-pick information/results which are delivered via Google News. There is quite clearly some manual exclusion/selection of feeds. Filtering that is driven by humans is most likely involved to refine SEPRs that reach a large readership (e.g. "linux", "novell", "opendocument", "2008 election").

Last but not least, be aware that Yahoo seems to be breaking apart (1,000 jobs to be axed) and there is no clear strategic/recovery plan.

The hammer has fallen. Yahoo will finally make the job cuts Wall Street has craved for a long time, before a backdrop of lower profits caused by higher expenses.


Where will all these people end up? And if Microsoft inherited Yahoo's position in search engines, what information would people receive (Microsoft is already said to be tweaking results to advance its business goal? Oh, Lordy.

Related posts

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
 
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries
Links 26/03/2024: Inflation Problems, Strikes in Finland
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/03/2024: Losing Children, Carbon Tax Discussed
Links for the day
Mark Shuttleworth resigns from Debian: volunteer suicide and Albania questions unanswered, mass resignations continue
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 26/03/2024: 6,000 Layoffs at Dell, Microsoft “XBox is in Real Trouble as a Hardware Manufacturer”
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/03/2024: Microsofters Still Trying to 'Extend' Gemini Protocol
Links for the day
Look What IBM's Red Hat is Turning CentOS Into
For 17 years our site ran on CentOS. Thankfully we're done with that...
The Julian Paul Assange Verdict: The High Court Has Granted Assange Leave to Appeal Extradition to the United States, Decision Adjourned to May 20th Pending Assurances
The decision is out
The Microsoft and Apple Antitrust Issues Have Some But Not Many Commonalities
gist of the comparison to Microsoft
ZDNet, Sponsored by Microsoft for Paid-for Propaganda (in 'Article' Clothing), Has Added Pop-Up or Overlay to All Pages, Saying "813 Partners Will Store and Access Information on Your Device"
Avoiding ZDNet may become imperative given what it has turned into
Julian Assange Verdict 3 Hours Away
Their decision is due to be published at 1030 GMT
People Who Cover Suicide Aren't Suicidal
Assange didn't just "deteriorate". This deterioration was involuntary and very much imposed upon him.
Overworking Kills
The body usually (but not always) knows best
Former Red Hat Chief (CEO), Who Decided to Leave the Company Earlier This Month, Talks About "Cloud Company Red Hat" to CNBC
shows a lack of foresight and dependence on buzzwords
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 25, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 25, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Discord Does Not Make Money, It's Spying on People and Selling Data/Control (38% is Allegedly Controlled by the Communist Party of China)
a considerable share exists
In At Least Two Nations Windows is Now Measured at 2% "Market Share" (Microsoft Really Does Not Want People to Notice That)
Ignore the mindless "AI"-washing
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Still Has Hundreds of Thousands of Simultaneously-Online Unique Users
The scale of IRC