Microsoft, Yahoo! announce a search deal

After years of back and forth negotiations, Microsoft and Yahoo! have announced a 10-year deal to work together on internet search and advertising.

Under the agreement, Microsoft will get exclusive access to Yahoo!'s search technologies, which may then be integrated into the company's Bing search engine. What's more intriguing is that Bing will then "be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites."

In other words, while I (and probably many other people) tend to think of Yahoo! as a search engine first, and a web portal second, the partnership basically hands the keys of Yahoo! search over to Microsoft, leaving Yahoo! to focus on other aspects of its web portal and other properties including Flickr.

Yahoo! will also take over as the primary sales force for search ads on both Microsoft and Yahoo! properties, while each company will maintain its own display ad division.

According to the press release, it could take as long as 2 years for the whole deal to go through once it's approved by regulators.

Despite early reports that Microsoft was looking to purchase Yahoo!, today's announcement outlines the details of a partnership, not a merger. Yahoo! and Microsoft will continue to operate their own web portals, video sites, email, IM, and other properties, many of which will be in direct competition with one another.

The companies have launched a new website at ChoiceValueInnovation.com to provide additional details as things develop. Try not to laugh too hard at the name.

Tags: microhoo, microsoft, news, yahoo