Microsoft, Yahoo, And Lots Of Overlap

If Yahoo agrees to Microsoft's proposed takeover, the two companies will have a lot of duplicate services to either integrate or eliminate. istartedsomething blog, it resembles the classic visual of the start of the Revolutionary War, with Redcoats and Minutemen formed in two long lines, each waiting for the other to shoot first.

Microsoft certainly opened fire this morning as they offered Peanut Butter Manifesto, Yahoo exec Brad Garlinghouse complained of too much duplication within Yahoo itself. Yahoo slowly began addressing that over 2007, closing sites like Yahoo Photos in favor of Flickr, for example.

That's nothing compared to what Long Zheng found in his comparison. Here's a sample from his table of services and their Yahoo and Microsoft equivalents, respectively:

SERVICE Yahoo Side Microsoft Side Search Yahoo Search Live Search Casual gaming Yahoo Games MSN Games Mapping Yahoo Maps Live Maps Instant Messenger Yahoo Messenger Live Messenger Mail Yahoo Mail Live Hotmail Community Help
Service Yahoo Answers Live QnA Photo Sharing Flickr Live Spaces Search Advertising Yahoo Search Marketing Microsoft adCenter Mobile Yahoo Mobile Live Mobile Web Development Yahoo Developer Network Dev.Live.com

The product teams have their work cut out for them. Microsoft seems confident they can make it work. Yahoo will have to give it their best shot, assuming the board accepts the deal. As Long Zheng requested, don't mess with Flickr, though.

For an opposing-opposing view,

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