Microsoft & Yahoo (MicroHoo) Signs on the Dotted Line: Final Agreement Done. by Kara Swisher @ allthingsd.com
Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) finally dotted all their i’s and crossed all their t’s today on the final definitive agreement for their search and online advertising partnership.
Somewhere a lawyer got his briefs.
No one but tech reporters and hair-trigger Wall Street analysts care, but the pair had to extend the deadline for inking the formal deal because it was so darn complex!
The companies have been near closure for weeks, but niggling details kept popping up, sources said, the better to sue each other if things went bad.
Now that this small hurdle has been cleared, MicroHoo has to wait for a variety of regulatory approvals before attempting their daring and quite possibly foolhardy ascent to the top of Mount Search, from whose peak Google (GOOG) has been enjoying the view all by its lonesome for a good long time now.
That is expected to happen early in 2010, and how the software giant and the Silicon Valley Internet icon traverse the dangerous crevasse of coordinating their advertising and tech systems will be gripping to watch (from the cozy safety of BoomTown’s HQ, of course).
And I can’t wait until MicroHoo has to master the blue links of death ice field.
You know: Because it’s there.
Here is their joint statement:
Yahoo! and Microsoft Finalize Search Agreement
SUNNYVALE, CA and REDMOND, WA–04 December, 2009–Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corporation today announced that the companies have finalized and executed the definitive Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement and License Agreement in accordance with the letter agreement announced in July.
The companies released the following joint statement:
“Microsoft and Yahoo! believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value, and more innovation.
“Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010.”
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How Do You Define “Market Share”? Ask Google Dictionary. by Peter Kafka @ allthingsd.com
Just in case you needed one, Google offers yet another reason not to pick up a book: Google Dictionary, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Works just fine, too. If Google knows the term–“emotional intelligence”–you’ll get a quick definition, though it’s not clear what Google is using as a source here. If it doesn’t know the term–say, “feature creep”–it immediately kicks out some Web definitions.
Google (GOOG) isn’t crowing about this one, which is wise given its continuing back and forth with the world’s publishers. And for now, the company isn’t really pushing it, either. Anyone who has already been using Google’s search box as a crude dictionary/spell-checker, as I frequently do, won’t see a change, except you may see AdWords ads for the new feature alongside your results, as I did here.
