Hostile bid for Yahoo could change future of the web
The future of the web may lie in whether Microsoft Corp.'s bid to acquire Yahoo Inc. turns hostile, which could happen as soon as this weekend.
For the average internet user, at stake is how the web will evolve over the next few years. In an initiative called "momentous" by industry observers, Yahoo fully embraced the Web 2.0 movement Thursday by throwing open all of its platforms to outside developers. The company is,
in effect, going to let the public shape its various offerings, including e-mail, instant messaging and other online services.
"It's been a long time since I've been able to bring Yahoo together with the word 'exciting,'" said Karsten Weide, an analyst for research firm IDC in California. "This might be a sea change for the internet. It could be the end of the web as we know it."
The strategy essentially emulates Facebook's recipe for success. The social-networking site has enjoyed explosive growth by allowing the public to design new applications for it, which has drawn a constant stream of new users, traffic and advertising. The difference with Yahoo, however, is that it operates on a much bigger scale and is more important to the overall web than Facebook, Weide said.
Profound effects on the web
Yahoo itself touted the move as a major shift in philosophy that could have profound effects on the web as a whole.
"It is rewiring Yahoo from the inside out, across all of our properties, to fundamentally open up those web services and provide a consistent development model, a consistent deployment and consumer experience as well," said Ari Balogh, the company's chief technology officer, during a keynote at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco on Thursday.
Yahoo's move may be too little, too late, however. Executives of the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company have so far rebuked Microsoft's offer, currently valued at $44.6-billion U.S., prompting that company to signal that its bid may turn hostile. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft has indicated it may try to oust Yahoo's board and appeal directly to the company's shareholders as early as this weekend.
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