It just might be one of the most powerful unions ever. Their marriage just might change everything about the way you search online.

It’s the blessed union of Microsoft and Yahoo. This union is a definite attempt to overpower the top search engine in the country, of course, Google.


As mentioned in Microsoft uses search engine to find legitimacy, Microsoft may be pretty awesome with its software, but its search engine is sub par.

Microsoft has struggled for years to get out of third place. With the recent introduction of their improved Live Search search engine, known as Bing, Microsoft seemed to be going in the right direction.

Bing was met with many doubts but it has gotten a lot of media attention and is strikingly different than its forerunner. Critics were surprisingly impressed with the specificity of Bing’s results, as they are broken down in a sidebar.

Impressive or not, Google still remains the favorite. It might be just because we’re all in the habit of “google-ing” it. I mean who really says, “I’m going to go Bing that”?

Old habits die hard, but this new merger is ready to fight.

Since February of last year, Microsoft has been bidding to get Yahoo to enter a meaningful relationship, according to CNET. On Wednesday, they finally decided to get together. The deal is supposed to be final in early 2010 and will last for 10 years.

The plan is for Microsoft to power Yahoo’s search results. In return, Yahoo will handle all advertisements. What a perfect relationship. Somebody has the power and somebody does all the important work. (That sounds about right.)

This power couple has some high hopes of moving up the search engine hierarchy to really be popular again. With this combination, it just might work, but it won’t come easily.

The Washington Post reported that Google holds “65 percent of the market for Internet search advertising.” Yahoo and Microsoft together draw about 28 percent of it so… It’s going to take quite a bit of work to beat Google.

The deal has to be reviewed by the Justice Department’s antitrust regulators, or by the Federal Trade Commission.

The Washington Post also reported that Microsoft is currently under investigation by the European Union for bundling its Internet browser, Explorer, with the Windows operating system.

Sen. Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee said that there will be “careful scrutiny” because they are “concerned about competition issues in these markets because of the potentially far-reaching consequences for consumers and advertisers.”

Advertisers will definitely be affected, as they will see a change in their outlets and financial situations. As for consumer consequences, I have yet to understand what that could mean. (Then again, maybe the consequence would be not using Google.)

Considering that the deal has yet to be approved, we probably can’t expect to see much of a change for at least another six months. If you’re pulling for Microhoo, take the first step and instead of “Googling it,” maybe you could “Bing it.”