There's been no shortage of opinion about what went wrong with Microsoft's "failed" $47.5-billion takeover of Yahoo (I'm hedging because a lot of people still think the deal could go through, once cooler heads prevail).
But amid all the analysis and punditry since talks between the two companies fell apart last week, the one angle that's proved elusive is what avid users of Microsoft's and Yahoo's products have to say.
I'm not just talking about people with computers and Internet connections. I'm talking about people for whom information technology is part of their DNA, who can't imagine making it through the day without access to Facebook and YouTube and the other feeding grounds of the chronically wired.
That's why I found myself the other day surrounded by a couple of dozen fresh-faced students in the tech center of Loyola High School, an all-boys college-prep academy near downtown Los Angeles. Founded in 1865, it boasts of being the oldest school in Southern California.
One look around told me I'd come to the right place. Nearly every kid was clutching a school-issued white Apple laptop and busily multi-tasking throughout our conversation. Some didn't even bother glancing up from their screens while answering my questions.
Two things quickly became clear:
Yahoo isn't very cool.
Microsoft, surprisingly, is.
The reason for Yahoo's anti-coolness, of course, is Google. I asked how many of the students use Google every day. All hands shot up. How many use Yahoo every day? Two hands.
"I don't even think about Yahoo," said 15-year-old Tyler. "I always go straight to Google." (For privacy reasons, and to keep angry parents off my back, I agreed to use only the kids' first names.)
And Microsoft? The company once dubbed the "evil empire" by techies has whole new street cred among young people, and the reason for that isn't Windows and it isn't Office. It's the Xbox.
Among kids who play video games, and that's most kids, Xbox rocks. That's due in no small part to the massively popular sci-fi shoot-'em-up Halo and its two sequels.
More than 20 million copies of the games have been sold to date.
"Microsoft has been the leader in technology for many years," said Michael, 16. "It could have really helped Yahoo."
I asked if everyone knew who Bill Gates was. All hands shot up.
I asked if anyone could name Microsoft's current CEO. No hands.
