Last week news started heating up again about the possibility of a Yahoo & Microsoft partnership (or perhaps merger) wherein Yahoo would begin using Microsoft’s Bing search technology to power Yahoo Search, and also serve ads on Yahoo Search results and throughout the Yahoo Network which would be also powered by Microsoft AdCenter.
So Yahoo Search, which has been powered in the past by Inktomi, Altavista & Google in the past, may soon be powered by Bing.
There were reported meetings within Yahoo last week about the possibility of a merger or partnership, and with Microsoft performance slipping last quarter, along with Yahoo coming in a bit under Wall Street expectations, the option for the two companies to work together on search and take advantage of a combined 30%+ market share in an attempt to challenge Google may indeed make sense.
This morning, AdAge.com dropped the bomb that the Yahoo Microsoft deal should go through this week :
The deal, which would make Microsoft a more credible competitor to Google, is likely to be announced this week, and seems likely to be based on a revenue share, not on a big fat check upfront, as some at Yahoo had hoped.
Adding these details on the possible partnership :
1. Yahoo would be compensated from a share of revenue from the sale of search ads and will not be paid upfront.
2. Yahoo would be allowed to sell search ads on Bing.com as well as its own site, giving it more search inventory to sell and making it a bigger player in the search sales front.
3. Yahoo will save millions by not having to maintain its own search infrastructure.
