According to reports, Microsoft is preparing to announce its new CEO, possibly today, and probably after trading is concluded. The name favoured is Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s enterprise and cloud chief. There’s also talk of replacing the company’s chairman, Bill Gates, to allow him more time to concentrate on his Foundation.
Whatever happens, I can’t help think that the market has changed significantly in the last few years, and whoever ends up at the helm of Microsoft may have to be ready for a bumpy ride.
Microsoft’s a huge and a valuable company, but it’ll have to bring on board its best teams of innovators to continue to be the force it is today. Certainly, in some sectors, it’s fallen behind. Direction changes have been going on at Microsoft for some time, however, the company has failed to innovate effectively, and has lagged behind the competition. For example, Microsoft had a tablet computer over 10-years ago, but the hardware wasn’t right just then. Note, the tablet, or touch pen-computer’s history goes back decades, probably as far back to sci-fi shows and movies, such as Start Trek.
It was Apple that innovated and introduced the iPad 1 to the market. At that time of launch the hardware, processors, batteries and software were advanced enough at the time for Steve Jobs to launch the iPad.
From my point of view, Microsoft seemed to fail to innovate, having had a tablet PC some years back. It’s that kind of forward thinking the company needs to foster, and I hope that the new CEO is able to bring back that innovation.
Welcome to this WebmasterWorld Weekly Round-up.
The previous WebmasterWorld Weekly is
here.This week there was another warning from Google. "
Google Warns It May Take Action Over Affiliate Sites With Thin or Scraped Content" We've heard this before, haven't we?
Microsoft decided to accept it was infringing on a trademark owned by British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) Group's Sky trademark and will be
renaming SkyDrive to OneDrive Didn't something similar happen with the so-called Metro interface!
In a surprising announcement, a US Judge has rules that
Google violated patents and must pay royalty on AdWords revenue. This, if not contested by Google and comes to fruition could be worth hundreds of millions, if not running into billion of Dollars. It's unlikely to go without appeal.
As I mentioned, there's a report of
Microsoft getting ready to announce it's new CEO, and the favourite is Satya Nadella.
This week Google decided to cut its losses on Motorola and to
sell the business to Lenovo for $2.91 billion.
Facebook wants to be your news source, and is
introducing "Paper" app in advance of the launch Feb 3.
In an interesting discussion on Google's AdSense, WebmasterWorld Members are discussing an
analysis and diagnosis of the AdSense program. Join the discussion with your views.
Google's financials are out this week and it ended the quarter, December 31, 2013 with revenues of $16.86 billion, an increase of 17pct on 2012. "
Google Earnings Up 17pct Year on Year, But Miss Analysts Expectations"
Yahoo Mail seems to have been the result of a hack attack and the company moved to protect its systems.
Google's Matt Cutts announced that a
French link network was now out of Google. According to reports, it seems the company has subsequently shut down operations.
Bing has continued its "Rewards" program with the announcement its taking it to mobile devices.
Facebook reported 4Q earnings and year end this week. It's showing growth figures, especially in the mobile environment.
Google has
refreshed analytics and says it has enhanced segmentation in remarketing programs.
In today's video, Matt Cutts answers the question,
"Should I build links using article directories?" Here's the video, and here's our discussion on the topic. "
Matt Cutts: building links using article directories is not recommended"
Enjoy your week, until next time...
Cheers
Neil
http://www.twitter.com/engineFollow WebmasterWorld on twitter. #webmasterworld or @webmasterworld
WebmasterWorld on Facebook.
WebmasterWorld Weekly Round-Up 31 January
