Report: Yahoo getting serious about Google ad deal

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Yahoo is fighting a merger battle with Microsoft and wants to make it on their own by partnering with Google.

Last month Google and Yahoo tested their search strategy for about two weeks and it involved less than 3 per cent of Yahoo’s Web search queries. The test was designed for Google and Yahoo to evaluate the revenue potential of a broader search ad sales outsourcing arrangement.

Apparently, Yahoo was very happy with the outcome and now is planning to have a broad deal with Google in the next few weeks.

Earlier, Microsoft complained about this partnership and said it violated anti-trust policies. To avoid this problem, Yahoo's new deal will employ a real-time auction and the winner from the groups (Google, Microsoft, and others) will provide the ads for them. The ads will be selected on the basis of maximum revenue, which would be shared between Yahoo and the chosen search partner.

Since Google has a higher market share in search, it will likely be providing more ads for Yahoo, but at least it will open to anyone, according to Wall Street Journal.

The argument is that opening the system to others could allay concerns that the partnership could be anticompetitive and therefore run afoul of antitrust regulators.

Yahoo and Google declined to comment on the report.

Yahoo has a huge user base and page views, and Google can provide them quality search ads and help them gain significant income.