The Microsoft and Yahoo deal was supposed to make the two into one huge giant capable of taking on the might of Google. At least, that was the plan. However, the reality is that anything Microsoft related in the world of online publishing is never, under any circumstances, going to challenge Google, or even get noticed by it.
For example, only yesterday this screen grab was taken from inside Hotmail, where Microsoft presents the big stories of the day. The stories shown here reference Karren Brady being hired by Sir Alan Sugar, dive-master Ronaldo scoring for Madrid on his debut, news about the Oasis split, a kidnap story and news of the girl murdered in a lorry.
What do these stories all have in common? They’re WEEKS old! Hotmail, powered by the online publishing genius of Microsoft, isn’t even able to present stories from that week, never mind that day.
While this may have been an anomaly from Microsoft, it’s not unusual. The last few days have all seen the same news story reported every day, and that is the news of Alesha Dixon’s response to criticism about her debut on Strictly Come Dancing. It never updated… until yesterday when it shifted back a few weeks.
Microsoft thinks it can challenge Google? We’re certainly not going to look at MSN for our headlines, unless we’ve blacked out for a few weeks and want to know what we missed.
