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Google Still Unchallenged

A Google workers rides her company bike in front of Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Wednesday, May 7, 2008. It's hard to believe that just two months ago people were starting to openly wonder if the tide had finally turned against Google. Now, on the eve of its annual shareholders meeting, the online search leader looks stronger than ever. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
A Google workers rides her company bike in front of Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Wednesday, May 7, 2008. It's hard to believe that just two months ago people were starting to openly wonder if the tide had finally turned against Google. Now, on the eve of its annual shareholders meeting, the online search leader looks stronger than ever. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) (Paul Sakuma - AP)
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· Yahoo's Flickr photo-album site is one of its strongest assets. But why is it still priced as if it must keep a start-up afloat? Making effective use of Flickr, even just putting up four photo albums at a time, requires paying $24.95 a year for a Pro account. Competing services like Google's free Picasa Web Albums offer far more features.

· Microsoft has one of the best maps-and-directions sites in Live Search Maps, and Yahoo's own mapping site offers some interesting features absent from Google Maps. But Google's online cartography is more interactive and available on more phones than either Microsoft or Yahoo's versions.

· Memo to Yahoo: Ever heard of blogging? Ever heard of social networking? Why do you have no real presence in either area?

· Memo to Microsoft: Treating your Web portfolio as a marketing tool for Windows might not be the best idea. At best, this is an indirect way to push sales of Windows. At worst, pushy salesmanship repels people who have chosen to run other companies' software.

· Microsoft also needs to stop pretending that it can keep countering the Web-based programs released by Google, Adobe and such start-ups as Zoho with conventional disk-bound releases.

· Both companies should note how many areas Google has left open, such as online file storage, event planning and address-book-sharing. They have excellent chances to jump ahead of Google in these markets.

A splashy merger would have ensured Microsoft and Yahoo a prominent spot in the headlines, but now it's time for these companies to focus on earning themselves new places in their users' Web bookmarks.

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro atrobp@washpost.com. Read more athttp://blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/


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