Yahoo! appears to be pushing its luck. On April 10, the struggling Internet portal said it was testing a partnership to allow Google to host a small percentage of its search advertisements for two weeks. On Thursday, a week later, it inched further toward a long-term deal with Google because the companies are pleased with the initial results of the experiment, according to The Wall Street Journal.The problem, as Microsoft pointed out in a statement last week, is that any potential deal between Google and Yahoo! raises antitrust concerns: Google receives 67% of all searches, and Yahoo! hosts 20%, according to March data from Web traffic analysis firm Hitwise. Combined, the two would represent a near monopoly of the search market.
www.forbes.com/technology/2008/04/17/microsoft-yahoo-google-tech-ebiz-cx_ag_0417yhoo.html