Microsoft, Facebook and Twispers
Do you remember playing Whispers, Operator, Telephone or Chinese Whispers (UK) -- where one person whispers a phrase to another person, who whispers it another person...until the last person hears something significantly distorted from the original phrase?I've seen it play out many times in the blogosphere, with the added incentive that bloggers gain traffic/celebrity by twisting things to give their post an "angle" and fuel controversy. The speed of distortion only increases with Twitter. It usually just makes me chuckle, but with the influence/agendas of some bloggers it can border on business tampering. If this weekend's Microsoft/Facebook story continues to morph as it already has in 2 days, there could be billions of shareholder dollars at stake.
Over the weekend Microsoft released the following statement:
"“In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo! Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo! at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo! or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft or with other third parties.Pretty straightforward, no mention of Facebook, no mention of locking anything down.
“There of course can be no assurance that any transaction will result from these discussions.”"
John Furrier combined that statement with some rumors he was hearing:
"Why would such a complicated transaction (just Yahoo search with all the headaches and all) be in the cards for Microsoft? After the failed bid for $40 plus billion for all of Yahoo, Microsoft’s intentions are clear. Buy the search business from Yahoo and take that team and go spend at least 20 billion for Facebook. Integrating the search team at Yahoo with Facebook puts a formidable army to take on Google."Distortion #1: "Microsoft's intentions are clear...go spend at least 20 billion for Facebook." Clear?!? I saw no mention of Facebook in Microsoft's statement. At least John didn't claim anything would be locked down, just a formidable integration.
Robert Scoble then expands on John's post to claim:
"Google is locked out of the Web that soon will be owned by Microsoft. We will never get an open Web back if these two deals happen....It’s Facebook and Microsoft vs. the open public Web."Distortion #2: "It's Facebook and Microsoft vs. the open public Web" Robert doesn't state any plans by Microsoft to lock anything down, but he does play the tried-and-true "open vs. close" card.
Then, Umair Haque takes Robert's bait (or maybe John's) and adds a litany of open vs. closed buzzwords for Harvard Business Publishing:
"According to an interesting rumour making the rounds: Microsoft is to acquire Yahoo's search business as well as Facebook, and lock both down, to better take on Google....Microsoft is trying to shift from open to closed....That’s what evil really means: coercing others into accepting value destruction....Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Ballmer’s hare-brained scheme for world domination...Microsoft's move is a textbook example of how not to think strategically at the edge...."Distortion #3: where do I start? Somehow we got from a Microsoft statement about Yahoo to "Microsoft is trying to shift from open to closed" with a couple good vs. evil references for spice.
Not only does this game of Whispers continue with republished out-of-context quotes, but it even comes full circle with John's follow-up Twitter promotion of Umair:
"Furrier: @kellyrfeller you should sub to this blog by Umair http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/ he's strong on strategy"
There have been many names for this whisper game over the years. I wouldn't be surprised one day to find my kids calling it the Blog Whispers game...or maybe even Twispers ;-)
Labels: closed, facebook, john furrier, microsoft, open, robert scoble, twisper, twispers, umair haque, yahoo
Posted by VC Dan | 5/19/2008
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Comments (4)
hey dan,
if microsoft buys facebook and opens it up - or opens anything up, for that matter - i'll gladly eat my words.
after all, ms has a great deal of leverage with facebook - and it's not as though facebook has opened up.
i think "open" and "closed" are just universally accepted, basic descriptions of platforms. it's surprising to hear them called buzzwords - especially by an investor.
so i think you kind of missed entire the point of my post: which was to point that google/open beats microsoft/closed in the long run.
on a bit of a deeper level, i find your assumption - that we should censor ourselves from discussing companies unless we have perfect information about them - astonishing.
thx for the response.
thanks for stopping by Umair.
Don't take it personally. You, Robert and John just provided the most recent example of the Twisper phenomenon. I like your analysis of open vs. closed systems generally, but attaching it to claimed Microsoft plans to "lock down" both Facebook and Yahoo Search was a stretch in my eyes.
Although I wasn't really engaging the specific question of Microsoft vs. Google (my post was more about the distortion in Twispers), I'll touch on that because you were kind enough to comment.
I see a spectrum of open to closed, not a black & white. I usually see a black & white argument painted when someone wants to stir up emotion, linkbait, generalize or they just don't understand the spectrum that really exists.
I'm no Microsoft champion, but I'd also bet they have 10X the APIs built into their systems than Google has in theirs. I'd love for Google to break open their search algorithms for us to tweak/understand via API, but they don't. Does that make them open or closed? Neither, just somewhere on the spectrum.
I'm not sure where you got the assumption you state about me. I said nothing about perfect information or censoring. Clearly shooting from the hip is fine and making bold, supported claims is fine -- it just gets confusing when they blend, mix and multiply across blogs/twitter, turning rumor and incorrect assumptions into fact.
On that note, I'd love to know where you got the datapoint that Microsoft planned to "lock both down"...care to share sources?
hey Dan,
what you're highlighting is very historic.. these phenoms that your referring to is the massive change in the real time communications infrastructure.. conversations with not so perfect info injected into a marketplace of connected sources are the new efficiency.
The big issue that you're missing is context..for example I refer Kelly Feller who I know and have worked with at Intel to Umair (who i've been following since he started blogging) because Kelly and Umair would benefit by knowing each other - Intel is doing some great work in social media. I did both of them the favor asking nothing in return (that's the new net). I wasn't as you were suggesting pumping up my post.
The bigger picture is about social science that intersects technology, relationships, and information. Umair is on the cutting edge of this and is tracking it - does he have all the answers not really no one does but he is developing great work in an open collaborative way.
Personally link baiting will be history as the net gets smarter with filters ... information striving for perfection wins!
Hey that's an opportunity for you to invest :-)
You're right Twispers phenomenon is real like the unification of the internet.
Hey John,
Thanks for the comment. I have to admit I only understood about half of what you said. Even so, I can see Umair's strengths in this topic area -- even if it comes with some creative license.
As for your timely intro of Kelly and Umair, such coincidences happen to me all the time -- with no evil intentions. Regardless of intent, I would bet that such timely props can inject even more credibility to a distorted Twisper -- as if the first person in a Whispers chain repeated what the last person told them even though it didn't match their original phrase...
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