Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware, Search

One of the features I’ve always liked about Vista was the Begin Menu’s search box. I heard a lot of complaints about the missing run command, but who cares? Win + R still works.

Besides, once you download and install Start++ the search box will be kicking so much ass you won’t believe it.

Start++ adds a number of handy functions. For a begin, you can set up custom keywords to perform search operations. By default it will recognize g (Google), y (Yahoo!), l (Live Search) w (Wikipedia), and imdb (’nuf said).

Type g[space] your search text, and Start++ will display results right in the begin menu. You’re even able to switch views between web, news, blog, and image seamlessly. Text and links can be highlighted and copied with ctrl + c, though right clicking does not work.

Continue reading Start++ Makes Vista’s Start Menu Wicked Useful

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Filed under: Industry, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Marketing and advertising

Yahoo!’s (NASDAQ: YHOO) shares hit another multi-year low, trading down to $15.54, off by more than half from its 52-week high of $34.08. That high was driven by a buyout offer from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), but Yahoo! now trades well below the level where it changed hands before Redmond came calling.

Yahoo!’s market cap is below $22 billion. By some estimates its ownership of Yahoo! Japan and Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba are worth $10 billion. That means that Yahoo!’s core business trades at only two times sales, a remarkably low figure.

Two fears have pushed Yahoo! down. The most obvious is that its share of the search market in the U.S. has fallen to about 20% and continues to drop. It might form a partnership with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to push up its revenue in this arena, but the deal is being challenged by antitrust authorities.

The major reason behind Yahoo!’s drop is one that would tend to push the shares down more over time. Wall Street has believed that world wide web display advertising, Yahoo!’s key revenue business, would continue to grow at rates of more than 20% for the next several years. Current evidence is that many marketers do not think about online display ads to be very effective, maybe even less effective than TV. Some big world wide web firms have watched their growth rates drop to single digits.

Yahoo! may be up against a problem that has no simple solution.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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