Keep Yahoo If Microsoft Buys It?

[dominique355]

Suppose Microsoft would actually acquire Yahoo and all it assets, including YIM and Yahoo Mail?

Would you keep your Yahoo account or would you switch to another web-based E-Mail service? And which?

I have never liked Microsoft and their aggressive monopolistic behavior pushing their competitors out of business after having stolen their idea. So for me, if Microsoft would be able to acquire Yahoo, I would close my Yahoo accounts and switch to ... mmmh ... any ideas? GMail?

[londonthai]

gmail is an answer

[sensei]

Hail Gmail!

[Drewcifer]

If all you're doing is looking for decent email.. why bother with any of the major portals (who by the way, read your mail). Free email isn't hard to get.

[nikster]

GMail. It's better than yahoo mail as it has POP and iMap access for free. It's perfect as far as freemail goes.

I don't think anything will happen to Yahoo mail - MS isn't going to risk losing all customers it just for for $44Bn by making them switch to Windows Live Mail. However, I can't see the combined Microhoo succeeding - I am thinking MS will run Yahoo into the ground, it will become another msn portal. Yahoo Mail will be around for years to come though.

@Drewcifer: They are not "reading your mail". They have automated systems parsing the mail to filter out spam - which works just unbelievably well on Gmail - and to display adverts on the web page, which is how it's financed. No person ever reads your mail - see here: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/about_pri...protect_privacy

Google was also the only one of the big companies that didn't just hand over user data when the U.S. secret services asked for it. MS, Yhoo, AOL just fell to their knees and handed everything over to uncle sam in their eagerness to "fight terrorism". Google demanded court orders and in the end didn't hand anything over. I find this should be mentioned, to their credit.

[Drewcifer]

GMail. It's better than yahoo mail as it has POP and iMap access for free. It's perfect as far as freemail goes.

I don't think anything will happen to Yahoo mail - MS isn't going to risk losing all customers it just for for $44Bn by making them switch to Windows Live Mail. However, I can't see the combined Microhoo succeeding - I am thinking MS will run Yahoo into the ground, it will become another msn portal. Yahoo Mail will be around for years to come though.

@Drewcifer: They are not "reading your mail". They have automated systems parsing the mail to filter out spam - which works just unbelievably well on Gmail - and to display adverts on the web page, which is how it's financed. No person ever reads your mail - see here: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/about_pri...protect_privacy

Google was also the only one of the big companies that didn't just hand over user data when the U.S. secret services asked for it. MS, Yhoo, AOL just fell to their knees and handed everything over to uncle sam in their eagerness to "fight terrorism". Google demanded court orders and in the end didn't hand anything over. I find this should be mentioned, to their credit.

Actually, "reading your mail" can you mean a lot of things. Google says no "human" will read your email, but google and others like them, can and do use it to make a targeting profile for you. I know from direct experience that the extent of these profiles can be very extensive. They don't have to be able to physically read your email in order to know a lot about you, what you do, and who you converse with. Perhaps you should read those terms again.

[Gary A]

I resisted using Gmail for a long time because of their tactics regarding privacy. I finally decided to try it and have decided that it is great. If they want to read my emails, let them go ahead.

Yahoo has made many "improvements" that said, I think everything they have done has gone backwards. Everything they have improved stinks. A new owner and new management would be welcome as far as I am concerned. I have a Hotmail account as well as Yahoo but Gmail is what I use.

Edited May 3, 2008 by Gary A

[Brigante7]

Only ever use Hotmail, never worried about security, have nothing worth stealing in my e-mails, have never used google for anything but use Yahoo all the time and my homepage is set to Yahoo, so yes would continue using it.

[Rice_King]

Google was also the only one of the big companies that didn't just hand over user data when the U.S. secret services asked for it. MS, Yhoo, AOL just fell to their knees and handed everything over to uncle sam...

Since it appears that we're discussing these company's ethical standards and moral obligations, let's not forget that Google capitulated to the Chinese government demands last year that the search engine censor its mainland search results.

[naka]

Seeing as it's free ... Why worry ?

Naka.

[britmaveric]

Google was also the only one of the big companies that didn't just hand over user data when the U.S. secret services asked for it. MS, Yhoo, AOL just fell to their knees and handed everything over to uncle sam...

Since it appears that we're discussing these company's ethical standards and moral obligations, let's not forget that Google capitulated to the Chinese government demands last year that the search engine censor its mainland search results.

No offense the Yank govt can look anyways - do u think they need cooperation?

This point is moot MS just withdrew its bid, so your yahoo account is safe.

[Gary A]

The Yahoo big shots will now have a lot of explaining to do. The had someone stupid enough to buy the company and now their greed and stupidity have killed the deal. Watch the stock drop like a rock today.

[jonniebkk]

All this posting about the web based email services "reading" people's email. They all digitally scan it for spam keywords and in GOOG's case to send you targeted ads (how do you think they offer it free). Also, it's a certainty that the world's uncle, named "Sam," is reading everyone's email (ever heard of a NSA/CIA program called "Carnivore")?

My point being that unless one encrypts their email with a program like PGP, you should treat email like you would a snail mail in that it is traveling on a public network and could be intercepted and read by many people before it reaches its destination. Never write anything you would not want someone else to see.

Edited May 6, 2008 by jonniebkk