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A Fool Looks Back

By Rick Munarriz – Updated Nov 15, 2016 at 5:28PM

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Dot-com psychology and cosmetology colored in the week that was.

Keifer madness at MySpace
What do 24 and MySpace.com have in common? No, it's not the median age of a MySpace user. You would probably be overshooting reality there. Both the hit drama and the hit website are owned by the same company, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE:NWS).

They also share another common bond. News Corp.'s Fox is now offering episodes of the show for $1.99 an episode through MySpace.

This is a bad idea for two reasons. The first is that even though MySpace has generated nearly 80 million registered users and attracts nearly 40 million visitors a month, a casual glance would lead one to believe that those folks aren't the type to pay for filmed entertainment. MySpace is already promoting its free viral videos, so the tollbooth may feel foreign to users. Right, those who even have the plastic to pay for it in the first place.

The second reason why this is an odd move is that Disney (NYSE:DIS) -- a Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation -- is now streaming shows online for free. I've been impressed with the interface that Disney is providing and the crisp sponsor-subsidized streams.

There will always be a market for premium downloads. I don't see Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) hurting just because Napster (NASDAQ:NAPS) is streaming low-quality tracks for free. The problem here is that Disney's free product is pretty darn good. While there are a zillion ways to monetize the MySpace traffic, this doesn't seem like one of the company's best ideas.

A not-so-extreme dot-com makeover
In a move to keep its design fresh and its landing page newsy, Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) unveiled a new design for its namesake page. I know that my fellow Fool Alyce Lomax seems to like it, but I have mixed feelings about the new look.

I would normally enjoy the new buttons and fresh content, but that's not what I want out of a search engine. That's why I think Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) minimalist approach rocks. Yahoo! is more than just a search engine, sure, but that's also the problem, since Google commands nearly half of all of the country's Internet searches these days. That's also where the paid search goldmine is since, in theory, the portals make the most money when they are able to shoo visitors away to paying advertisers instead of drawing them in for keeps.

It's probably not a coincidence that Yahoo! is making this change smack dab in the middle of its June quarter. That way, we won't know if it was successful or not until the third quarter comes around. I'm making a note to make sure I pay attention to that conference call. If it works, I'd hate to see Google go for a similar attempt.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz recommends windshield wiper fluid when trying to look back. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy. Rick is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.

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