"Most important thing is having the right dialog with the user..", "...you need to religiously listen to user..", "..respect user preferences.."

So, Steve definitely realizes the importance of user in this game..that's cool.

Wow..so, Amazon & M$ team is (in all likeliness) going to come up with a mp3 player..that's some news for Apple.

btw Matt, thought you might want to look at the way mercextra.com shows up in my browser..
http://Startups.in/mercExtraCapture.png

Regards,
j

This is the first time I've seen the face of people who write this fantastic blog :-)

J,

Re Amazon/Microsoft MP3 player, I guess you're referring to fact that he didn't answer my question on it -- and instead burst into booming laughter, and then said "no comment?" I'm not sure that's a confirmation that there's something there; I think that's just crazy Steve Ballmer, and that we don't know ;)

Matt --
It is just the way he said "No comment" instead of a strong "No" pitched alongwith the recent WSJ report indicated to me that there definitely is something in making.
But again you are right..we can never predict Steve :)
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/amazon-rolling-music-service-and-audio-players/
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114005222162375368.html

Regards,
J

COMPARE STEVE'S PERCEPTION OF MS RELATIONSHIP WITH YAHOO - WITH TERRY'S PECEPTION OF MS

/// Q What about the relationship with Yahoo? Can you talk about the rumors you might be joining forces with Yahoo?

A There's a level of competition, but we're also a good customer. We're moving now to our AdCenter platform, but we've been a customer of theirs for Overture. They're a licensee of our Internet Explorer technology, which they're providing for download off the Yahoo site. I know those guys well. I've gotten to know them over the years. I like them. Particularly co-founder Jerry Yang, I've known very well over the years.

==============================
news.ft.com/cms/s/94131390-e115-11da-90ad-0000779e2340.html

Terry Semel, chairman and chief executive of Yahoo, said on Wednesday he had turned down an offer from Microsoft to buy a stake in Yahoo䴜s search business and that discussions about Bill Gates䴜 software group acquiring the company had not taken place.

‰¥þMy impartial advice to Microsoft is that you have no chance,‰¥ÿ Mr Semel said. ‰¥þThe search business has been formed.‰¥ÿ

Actually, that second quote is a bit misleading. If you listen to the interview, Semel seems to talking about the past, when Microsoft was thinking about getting into search. He may have turned down Microsoft's offer to buy their search, but the quote of him telling Microsoft to forget about the search business is definitely referring to a conversation he had with Microsoft in the past.

38:10

The reason that remark appeared to STILL be valid is due to the following:
(unfortunately Ken kept interupting)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We had a partnership with Microsoft;
We were they search provider;
they really decided that they wanted to get into the search business as well.

I know I would sound partial, but I felt like I was giving impartial advice.

my impartial advice is that you have no chance;
the marketplace has been formed.

Search as we know it today, search the web as we know it today, the number one search player in the world is Google,

and in the US, Google at the time was in the high 30s, had about a 38% market, Yahoo had about a 29 or 30% market share

Microsoft, and I'm not going to call it Microsoft cause it makes it sound so large. On the Internet Microsoft's called MSN. So MSN which is small, not large, had about a 13% market share, and that would be less in different countries, so 13% in the US.

So my advice to them is no matter how well you build this thing, you'd begin with no data, cause the two of us had been in this business for a long time and you'd begin without a single advertiser in your system....

---Interuption----

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terry did NOT indicate that his feelings/perceptions had changed. Knowing the importance of this interview it does not have been an oversight. There even was a touch of Patronization when referring to Microsoft as MSN.

His (a-hem) "perception" aout MSN having NO Chance was probably a strategy to keep them as a Paying Customer.

:LOL (Oh go ahead, MSN start your own Search Engine. You will be successful - as you have been with so many endeavors - and you'll REALLY gain an increasing chunk of the market share!)

Microsoft STILL has about that same share

====================================================
Another interesting piece in this interview is:

In reference to his refusal to co-own/ Search Partner with Microsoft
"...buying someone's right arm, while I still have their left arm"

for a Year both Yahoo and Microsoft used Inktomi - after Microsoft got rid of Looksmart - the two SERPs were quite similar.

Yahoo had been through Altavista and Google previously, even replacing Google with their Directory as the Default - only recently they saw the light to get their own search.

That's cool, Matt :-).