Because the Microsoft Way is to give top priority to holding on to the high-leverage point in a market, and to do the lowest-quality engineering they can get away with to hold onto it. Their internal culture favors mediocre work as long as it's done fast and the testers don't find too many bugs.

Search is now one of the highest-leverage points in the world economy, and it will become more important as time goes on. Microsoft having their claws a little deeper into search means they will use that position not so much to give people everywhere access to information, but mostly to help other Microsoft ventures grab and hold market share against competitors.

I'm guessing that he dug Yahoo in the old days much like myself. Kinda weird seeing them working a deal with MSFT. I guess Google needs some competition in search.

I guess I see as positive since I've thought for years that Yahoo could not continue on the path they're on. This seems like a necessary change for the better.

So are you depressed by Facebook doing a deal with MS? MS is enormous. This deal is just collaborating on search - I don't understand why people are taking it like it's the end of Yahoo as an independent entity.