Yahoo, Microsoft Deal

The oft-talked about deal is done. Pending federal approval, Yahoo and Microsoft did what they needed to do – combine forces to become a better foe for Google. It’s not a true merger, mind you, but it’s a pretty interesting partnership.

Here are the basics of the deal between Yahoo and Microsoft:

  • Bing will exclusively serve as the search and paid search algorithm for Yahoo’s sites
  • Yahoo will sell search ads for both companies
  • Self-serve ads (the kind that business owners are familiar with, think Adwords) will be done in a unified platform, Microsoft’s adCenter
  • The length of the deal is 10 years

Is Google quaking in their boots? Probably not. But this deal is good for advertisers (that means all of you business owners out there). It combines the best of the two self-serve technologies (from Microsoft) and adds the volume (from Yahoo!) necessary to try and make a dent in the big dog of search’s marketshare.

Here’s hoping they can get the deal to go through quickly and get up-and-running faster than a couple of years. I like competition and look forward to see what Google does, if anything, to react to this deal.