Web space service

Just about everyone else on the Internet has written on the potential acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft for $44.6 billion, but I thought that I would weigh in on what I think this might mean for search and Web services. According to ComScore's search share numbers for December 2007, Google has 58.4 percent of the market share, with Yahoo and Microsoft trailing at 22.9 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively. If Microsoft and Yahoo combine forces and change nothing, that will put them at 32.7 percent to Google's 58.4 percent. ***

A phishing scam was circulating on Friday through Yahoo Messenger that directs people to a malicious Web site where they are prompted to enter their Yahoo user name and password. The malicious instant message automatically forwards itself to the victim's IM contacts. The IM arrives from someone in your contact list with a link to a Geocities Web page and smiley face emoticons surrounding the link. When clicked on, the link opens a page that looks like a legitimate Yahoo 360 sign-in page. Yahoo is investigating the matter and will take down the Geocities Web site if it is perpetrating a scam, a Yahoo spokeswoman said. Geocities is Yahoo's free Web space service. Yahoo also will add filters to the Messenger system to prevent the malicious link from being propagated, she said. Phishers often use smiley faces and other emoticons to make the victim feel that the IM is safe. Geocities sites are often used in phishing scams. ***

The results are in from Gartner's Web services platform "magic quadrant" and IBM and Microsoft have reason to be happy. Gartner's annual ranking of vendors along two axes -- ability execute and completeness of vision -- places IBM, Microsoft, Tibco Software, Oracle, and SAP in the enviable upper, far-right quadrant. The companies that make consideration for the Web services platform list are companies that provide software to build, run and manage Web services, according to Gartner. Gartner notes that the line between infrastructure software and applications is beginning to blur. SAP's NetWeaver, for example, is referred to as "applistructure" because it combines customizable middleware with SAP's business applications. "Web services and SOA (service-oriented architecture) are at the core of this trend, so vendors that haven't focused on the traditional platform and development space are beginning to exert more influence. ***