The rumors of a Google-Yahoo merger have leaked out, so I'm considering the embargo on that news off and will go ahead and tell what I know so far.
As Andy notes and Barry also mentions, there is indeed an agreement between the two companies that has been worked out. Neither company wanted the news to come out today, April Fool's Day. After all, Google watched how the major news of its Gmail rollout last year simply wasn't believed by some, because it came on April Fool's.
The merger, if allowed by investors not to mention regulators, would be colossal. We've had search mergers before, but never between two players that command such a large share of the search market. Combined, the two would control something like 70 percent of the "natural" search results that people see and nearly all of the paid listings out there.
Why would these two competitors -- and companies with largely different operating styles -- combine? Fear of Microsoft. While I've written many times before that Microsoft isn't going to walk all over Google -- much less both Google and Yahoo -- the two companies themselves are falling victim to the hype. Search is seen as so important, such a major future money maker, that they want to unite now.
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The New MSN shook both giants I beleive. I like it as well. :D
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