In an announcement that made a loud “bing!” to the internet search world yesterday, giants Microsoft and Yahoo! have decided to play nice together with combining their search technologies. It’s not surprising, as Microsoft courted Yahoo! last year for a while only to be snubbed in a final purchasing attempt. What can best be called an “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” approach to search engine market dominance, Microsoft and Yahoo are joining forces in a grasp at making a dent in search engine leader Google’s share of the market.
Yahoo!, formerly having an identity crisis (Do we love Microsoft’s money? Do we love Google’s money? Are we kidding ourselves about our valuation?), now seems to have clearly made a decision on which side they stand on. Both companies, Microsoft and Yahoo!, seem to have been struggling with making their search advertising sales profitable. Seeing that Google has done it, this partnership seems to be the last-ditch effort of desperate men.
Will Google, Micrsoft, and Yahoo! ever learn to play nice? Let us know what you think in the comments.