We knew Microsoft was close to inking a deal with Yahoo!, but the time to sign on the dotted line is almost here, and an insider’s spilled the beans on what’s going to go down: Bing will power Yahoo! search queries, giving it an instant boost in its battle against Google.
Microsoft’s been eyeing Yahoo! for an age in a bid to take on Google in the online search space, but all the boardroom bartering has come good at last: an inside source has confirmed to Reuters that the deal will be announced within 24 hours.
Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, will power future Yahoo! searches, with advertising sales left up to the web 1.0 trailblazer.
That’s a huge blow to Google’s dominance, as combining the two will bring Microsoft’s search share up from around 8.4 per cent to 28 per cent, at least in the US. Google still leads by a mile of course, but it’s a huge chunk of the search coffers suddenly going Redmond’s way, giving it the dough to push hard against the might of Google. Could Bing become search king?
