Microsoft & Yahoo! Internet search partnership

[dereksworl]

Its on now!......maybe......probably not. Is Google's dominance as a search engine too far ahead for this partnership to matter?

SAN FRANCISCO – Microsoft Corp. has finally roped Yahoo Inc. into an Internet search partnership, capping a convoluted pursuit that dragged on for years and setting the stage for them to make a joint assault against the dominance of Google Inc.

The 10-year deal announced Wednesday gives Microsoft access to the Internet's second-largest search engine audience, beefing up the software maker's arsenal as it tries to better confront Google, which is by far the leader in online search and advertising.

Microsoft didn't have to give Yahoo an upfront payment to make it happen, as many Yahoo investors had been counting on ever since Microsoft dangled $1 billion last summer in an attempt to forge a search partnership then.

Google tried to stop Yahoo from falling into Microsoft's camp. Last year it formed its own proposed search advertising deal with Yahoo, only to be forced to retreat from that alliance after U.S. antitrust officials threatened to sue.

Now the extended reach Microsoft is gaining will let it introduce its recently upgraded search engine, called Bing, to more people. The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker believes Bing is just as good, if not better, than Google's search engine. Taking over search responsibilities on Yahoo's popular site gives Microsoft a better chance to convert Web surfers who had been using Google by force of habit.

"Microsoft and Yahoo know there's so much more that search could be," said Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. "This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search."

Even with Yahoo's help, Microsoft has its work cut out. Combined, Microsoft and Yahoo handle 28 percent of the Internet searches in the United States, well behind Google's 65 percent, according to online measurement firm comScore Inc. Google is even more dominant in the rest of the world, with a global share of 67 percent compared to a combined 11 percent for Microsoft and Yahoo.

In return for turning the keys to its search engine over to Bing, Yahoo will keep 88 percent of the revenue from all ads that run alongside search requests on its site for the first five years of the deal. Yahoo also will have the right to sell search ads on some Microsoft sites.

Yahoo estimated the deal will boost its annual operating profit by $500 million and save the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company about $200 million on annual capital expenditures because it won't have to invest as much in its own search technology. An unspecified number of Yahoo engineers will lose their jobs as the company scales back, Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz told analysts in a Wednesday conference call.

The deal isn't expected to close until early next year, and then it could take another two years before all the pieces of the partnership are in place. The companies first will give antitrust regulators time to review the possible effects on the Internet ad market. Then they will need time to stitch together their different technologies.

Shares of Yahoo plunged $1.84, or 10.7 percent, to $15.38 in afternoon trading, as investors expressed disappointment over the fact that the company won't be getting an immediate windfall. Microsoft shares edged up 3 cents to $23.50 while Google shares shed $5.16, or 1.2 percent, to $434.69.

Yahoo! News Full Article

[brettallica]

This is good news for me. Now the two major competitors to Google that I never use will just be one....one that I never use instead of two.

[xtop]

Originally Posted by dereksworl

Its on now!......maybe......probably not. Is Google's dominance as a search engine too far ahead for this partnership to matter?




Yahoo! News Full Article

haven't seen you in awhile!

i'm glad this is happening tho. keep google on their toes

[dereksworl]

Originally Posted by xtop

haven't seen you in awhile!

i'm glad this is happening tho. keep google on their toes

yup, good to see Benders back. Its funny, i can be looking at news on yahoo and see something unfamilar, but instead of using yahoo!(which im already on their site) to search it, i'll go to google and google it. Is that wierd?

[mikejet]

Yang never should have turned down the initial offer.

I don't think they will make a dent in google.

I do prefer Yahoo news over Google news though. Not sure why.

[fatediesel]

Originally Posted by mikejet

Yang never should have turned down the initial offer.

I don't think they will make a dent in google.

I do prefer Yahoo news over Google news though. Not sure why.

Definitely agree Yang shouldn't have turned down the offer. Microsoft offered $33/share, a number that Yahoo isn't going to see again for a long time. Yang really angered a lot of stockholders when the stock price plummeted when it became clear a merger wasn't happening and that likely was a key factor in him stepping down. Yahoo redesigned their front page this week and I hate it. Too cluttered, and not everything I liked stay.

I do use Bing for most of my searches though, but that's just because MSN is my homepage so I can just hit the home icon and then search from there.

[bhampton]

I like Yahoo but can't stand microsoft.

[xtop]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I like Yahoo but can't stand microsoft.

i'm pretty sure you're one of the members i can remember who says this a lot

[mikejet]

Originally Posted by fatediesel

I do use Bing for most of my searches though, but that's just because MSN is my homepage so I can just hit the home icon and then search from there.

I use Firefox so by default most searches are through Google. At work I use IE but goto Google to do a search. I just prefer it.

Also, it's fun to use lmgtfy.com.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by xtop

i'm pretty sure you're one of the members i can remember who says this a lot

It's ironic... for years I was sure the only thing you could count on with a mac was paying too much for it.

Since getting one though.... I seemed to flipped on the subject. M$ stability seems constant and always just short of reliable.

=Brian

[supersix4]

As long as they keep their bing away from google they can do what they want.