Thanks but some things here seems strange to me. Have a good Thursday anyway….

Why would Microsoft buy Y!’s properties, and just destroy some of the things that made Y! at least a little successful? You must be an idiot to think MS will just buy a site for so much money, and kill it. There’s a ton of good opportunity with Flickr, and practically any company knows better than to mess with it bad, and hurt the user base.

Yahoo! is the one that loves censorship. They’re the ones that got Chinese journalists in jail. Though both Google and Microsoft also HAVE to censor their stuff in China, or not be in it at all.

And Flickr is a website. If you don’t like what they have to offer, move on.

As for everybody else, assuming the worst from Microsoft is dumb. Like Thomas, I see some good things that could come with the merge. Where the best of Y! + the best of WinLive/MSN = a more cohesive web services/content site.

Y!’s has great properties, large user base (also in Asia), among some great site designers and awesome partnerships (AT&T;, etc.). Combine that with WinLive’s pretty more robust services they’ve been offering, Microsoft’s latest technology, integration with some of Microsoft’s cooler products, and you’ve got one heck of a site.

Can’t wait to see what the merger will bring together. Hopefully pro accounts on Flickr get cheaper, just to win users over.

While there is tremendous potential I think that history would show that Microsoft’s acquisitions have not had the best results (Hotmail.com, driveoff.com to name a few).

Did anyone else celebrate Vista’s 1 year anniversary on the 30th?

HAHAHAH yes! I’m glad someone caught that I mean to add some sort of “irony” tag but didn’t before I posted.

The fact is ALL corporations are required to do what is best for the bottom line and eschew any concerns for morality, human rights etc. All internet companies are going to censor when it is in their financial best interests. However, I believe Microsoft is way worse than any of the others for one reason: they’re not only a huge internet presence they also have a stranglehold on the PC OS market. Think about the sheer potential of the Chinese consumer market and you can understand the greed that drives these policies.

In addition, Microsoft is known for censoring messages (to some degree) sent on its MSN Messenger service, in addition to censoring search results in its search engine for competing technologies and products. Google doesn’t do this because it doesn’t need to – at least they’re honest enough to have people bribe them to get the best search placement (a bit mellodramatic, i know). Personally, I think Microsoft will lead the way in censorship in the future not only for China but eventually the US.

Take a look at what your tax dollars are going to support, a bill that could be interpreted as the death of free speech in the US:

http://www.sixhoursaweek.com/2008/01/homegrown-terrorism-bill-news.html#more

WTF?! You’re the only Photographer on the planet who’s a happy Windows User!!!!

One of the greatest things yahoo did for flickr when they took over was keep their hands off… I wonder now, will Microsoft do the same? I hope so, and I’ll start here by asking Microsoft, if your deal goes through PLEASE DON’T RUIN FLICKR!!! After trying out the mess that is hotmail, Live, and MSN, I’m scared for the future flickr.

Good for microsoft..maybe. Good for users? I guess only time will tell…