29 July 2009 | Author: K. Todd Search Copywriter

Microsoft and Yahoo! seal the deal and announce partnership

Earlier today we reported that speculations were rife with the possibility of long-time rivals Microsoft and Yahoo! finally striking up a collaborative deal. Well, confirmation has now been released and the rumours are indeed correct - the two online colossuses have agreed to put the past behind them and announced a unifying move that will entail the pair challenging current industry sovereign Google.

The new deal will involve Yahoo! abandoning its old search engine in favour of Bing, the new 'decision engine' recently released by Microsoft that has been making waves in the search sphere for some time now. However, Yahoo! will retain an equal power, being the controller of all things ads - Yahoo!'s domain will include overseeing the global sales for both organisations' premium advertisers.

According to a press release, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz stated: "This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development.

"Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities, and mobile experiences."

New partner in crime Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, added: "Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers, and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company."

That single company, of course, is Google. The new developments mean that Google could be about to experience a powerful shove to the stability of its regal position when it comes to search - but who said a little competition hurt anyone? What'll be interesting to see is Google's response to the deal. Will the search king stay resilient or will we be able to see a shred of concern that the addition of Yahoo! to Microsoft's army could be the Wee Davy to Google's Goliath? In any case, we'll be watching the web for further ripples this exciting new partnership causes.