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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stormweaver who wrote (27902)	8/5/1999 12:56:00 PM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

msn is not really an isp, they outsource the majority of that to uunet. isp market is doomed anyway, and uunet or aol can't get broadband access. just natural market forces in action - see the end of the market, so consolidation is required to continue profits. free internet access would mean microsoft pays uunet 6 dollars (this is old number i am not sure of current) per customer a month. but the key thing is that msn is a collection of the best ecommerce web sites on the internet. realestate, autos, you name it. and more msn customers is more web hits. and webhits is how you value yahoo, etc. possibly this action against aol indicates spin off. but i don't think it is threat against yahoo because msn pages are very complicated in their programming, often require internet explorer to work, and the dependence on active x controls is a weakness because of the delay needed to view the pages the first time you go there. and if your initial experience is bad, you don't come back. yahoo's elegance is it's simplicity. but i find their reliance on inktomi a weakness, lycos aol and others often produce better results. that said, this link is still the best msie.yahoo.com for searching, IMO

To: Stormweaver who wrote (27902)	8/5/1999 1:34:00 PM
From: RTev	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Free access would propel MSN into not only becoming the largest ISP but eventually becoming a key portal site. It's already a key portal site. It's #3 behind Yahoo and AOL, and in some of the calculations (like workplace access) it comes in #2 behind Yahoo. Adding more internet access customers might help propel it upward, but it's clear that the portal is doing well as a stand-alone destination. The question is whether it's worthwhile for Microsoft to hobble its own programs in an attempt to make them act more like AOL's proprietary interface. Should Microsoft offer a browser that is not customizable in order to lock customers onto its portal page? Should they use mail servers that require a special client to access them as AOL does? Currently, Microsoft offers "open" tools that use standard internet protocols. You can use them on any ISP. Would customers complain if those tools could not be used on Microsoft's interent access service?