Microsoft to Acquire Yahoo! - Google Stock Plummets
On news that Microsoft was trying to acquire Yahoo! for $44.6 billion, Google’s stock plummeted and closed down 48.40 points (-8.58%). Microsoft’s bid to take a larger slice of the search and online advertising market had a strong impact on Google’s stock as investors grew weary of a combined Microsoft/Yahoo!.
The combined company would still not come close to matching Google Search’s global market share. According to Hitslink, Google’s total marketshare is 77.11%. A combined Microsoft and Yahoo! would only total 15.66%.
Urchin Public Beta Now Available
Google acquired Urchin for their web analytics technology, and quickly re-released the web-based statistics software as Google Analytics. Urchin also offered a server-based analytics software, which was enterprise-level and pricing can get to be thousands of dollars per server.
Since the acquisition, Google has not released a new version of Urchin, even though the last released version (a minor release) was in 2005 with Urchin 5.7. Urchin 5.0 was released in 2003. Even though Urchin was hard at work developing 6.0, and issued a press release that it would be released in 2004.
Finally, Google has released a public beta of Urchin 6. You can download it from Urchin’s website. According to Google, Urchin will come with a 3-month trial.