And Then There Were Two - WebProNews Video

Yahoo and Microsoft have finally partnered in a search agreement. A deal has been anticipated ever since Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo for 44.6 billion in early 2008. This current proposed deal however, looks nothing like that original offer. The companies have not disclosed all financial terms of the deal, but it does not appear that Yahoo received any upfront payment...

More WebProNews Videos

In summary, Microsoft will power Yahoo Search and Yahoo will become the exclusive search advertising provider for Microsoft’s search engine, Bing. Microsoft’s AdCenter will operate self-service advertising for both companies, but each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.

In an interview with WebProNews, search industry leader Danny Sullivan summed up his thoughts by saying what the deal meant for each company. He said, “[A] big win for Microsoft, a lot of questions for Yahoo.”

The deal will likely face a close antitrust review from regulators especially regarding Steve Ballmer’s claim that the partnership would provide a stronger competitor for Google.

It is still early, but nonetheless, there are many unanswered questions associated with the deal. Could Yahoo have bargained a better deal? How will Google respond? Is the deal a good move for Yahoo? How will the partnership influence the future of online advertising? What are the impacts on the SEO industry?

Provided the deal is granted regulatory approval, Yahoo and Microsoft said they hope to have their partnership finalized by early next year.

Source: WebProNewsVideo

Checking Out What the New Firefox Has to Offer from WebProNews Video

Firefox 3.5 is here and loaded with a plethora of improvements and new features . Sometimes with all of the download upgrades and new features that we are bombarded with it is hard to keep track of what tools are really available to us. This week, our very own Mike McDonald sat down to give you a rundown of some of the top features, improvements, and a few things to look out for with Firefox 3.5...

More WebProNews Videos

Some of the most buzzworthy features of 3.5 are its performance features. It leaves a smaller footprint, which means that it uses less of your computer’s memory while it is running. Firefox has also improved their graphics engine with improved Color Profile Support which, depending on the quality of your monitor, will make your images more crisp and vibrant. On top of that, page load is faster and memory management has been improved by continuously cleaning up any unused memory, but the top performance feature Firefox has added is the Super Speed feature. With Super Speed the browser is 3 times faster than Firefox 3 and 10 times faster than Firefox 2.

The new browser is also fully customizable. It has over 6,000 add-ons, which is a tremendous improvement from previous versions. In addition to being able to mold Firefox to fit your personal style, you can add different search engines, edit toolbar preferences, form the navigation buttons to your liking, and a multitude of other customization features.

The location bar, referred to as the Awesome Bar, has also been drastically improved. It now allows quicker navigation to the sites you like to visit, you can simply type in a site you’re looking for and it delivers all matching results. This feature is particularly useful for those hard to remember URLs. The Awesome Bar also offers one-click bookmarking and improved tagging.

Firefox 3.5 has a lot of handy features, but beware that compatibility has been an issue for some people, so before you upgrade be sure it is compatible with everything you need to run. Here we have just touched on several of the newest improvements but there are still many many more. To here more about these features watch the video above, and you can download Firefox 3.5 for yourself here.

How Much Are You Willing to Pay for News? - WebProNews Video

Recently the editor of the Financial Times, Lionel Barber, made a statement that most newspaper websites will be charging for content within a year. It is no secret that the newspaper industry has been hurting lately. With so many people turning to the web for their news, newspaper sales are down and the newpaper organizations have been trying to figure out a way to earn revenue online...

More WebProNews Videos

During his speech in London, Barber said that he is unsure of how newspaper organizations will be charging for content. He stated that charging on an article-by-article basis is an option, as well as charging a monthly subscription fee. Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation made a statement back in May proclaiming that his newspaper websites would likely be charging for content within a year as well, and a survey sent out recently by the New York Times asked subscribers if they would be willing to pay a monthly subscription fee of $5 for access to their news content online.

Another aspect to take into consideration is what charging for content will do to bloggers. Countless bloggers rely on the free news provided by online news organizations for their content. Can bloggers afford to pay the monthly subscription fees? But, more importantly can they really afford not to pay the fees?

A move like this will either make or break the newspaper industry. If a subscription fee is put in place news sites could charge more for online ads because the ads would be reaching a more targeted demographic of subscribers, but would the number of readers drop so significantly that it would not pay off for the newspaper organizations in the long run?

No matter which way you spin it, the newspapers have to do something to compete in the digital age, and maybe charging for content is just the ticket. We will just have to wait and see.

Google’s OS to Challenge Microsoft? - WebProNews Video

Googlers Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson announced on Wednesday that the company was embarking on a new project: the Google Chrome Operating System. After the Web browser launched last year, many people anticipated a Google OS as the company’s next move...

More WebProNews Videos

Google Chrome OS is open source and will initially be intended for netbooks; however, the system is said to be equipped to power large desktop systems as well. The three main aspects of the operating system are speed, simplicity, and security. Although Google will construct its own windowing system, the new OS will run on top of the kernel from the open source Linux OS.

According to the Google blog post making the announcement, the OS will not be available to consumers until the second half of 2010.

As Google prepares to enter the operating system market, many questions come to mind. First of all, is this a direct attack against Microsoft since Bing appears to be making legitimate progress? Will Google’s OS exist as a serious contender to the alternative operating systems? How will consumers and computer manufacturers react? Will Google be hit with more antitrust investigations?

Although there are many unanswered questions associated with this news, one thing that is certain is that Google has just taken on a challenging mission.