Google I/O Toggled Off
May 11, 2011
How much does it cost to kill the Google media buzz? Give up? With its alleged $8.5 billion purchase of Skype, that’s the price. According to “Microsoft Buys Skype for $8.5 Billion; Creates New Business Division,”
In its press release announcing the deal, Microsoft played up the potential synergies between Skype and its own communications offerings.
The operative word is “press release.” When the news hit, the toggle for Google I/O, the super cool conference, was flipped to “off.” Various aggregation services put the Skype story at the top of the pile, pushing the Google I/O news down, down, down. With the buy and the precisely timed news release, the Google looked off balance and out of focus.
Will Microsoft turn the Skype deal to big money? Probably not. Will Google recover from the PR drubbing administered with surgical precision? Sure. But for now, Microsoft looked a bit like its old self with one key difference: Giving Google a PR lesson cost a lot of money.
What about the other news, other conferences, and other dust ups in the Webby world? Nuked, gentle reader. When the provenance indifferent Internet grabs a big money story, an information weaponization sends out shock waves.
And what about the Skype voice thing? I think killing Google I/O may be the story.
Stephen E Arnold, May 11, 2011
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