This was always going to eb one of those conversations that would last till the cows come home, and the implications touch on every industry that has it fingers in the online world. Yahoo, Google and MSN, are the three top search engines, and the most widely used, however each has a loyal following and each has unique perks and functionality the ensures their user loyalty, for google you have google maps, docs, mail and a multitude of other useful and user friendly tools, in the case of yahoo we have yahoo answers, yahoo mail and a more social and younger targeting set of user tools, in the case of MSN, well for one this is set up as a default search browser on any windows machine, and then you have windows software which naturally defaults to MSN, oh and wait, isn’t Microsoft a bit of a monopoly when it comes to computer programs? guess what that is defaulted to…MSN, all this and lets not forget MSN messenger, everyones favourite IM service. For Yahoo this was always going to be a tough call.

In the search engine space the deal with Microsoft would always have been a preferred option, at least from where I am standing, anything that reduces the virtual strangle hold Google has on search will be good for both competition and free market. This being said, if you were to look at the bigger picture, both Google and Yahoo are companies that are fundamentally different and with different propositions to MSN, for one there seems to be a united distaste for MSN by developers and Linux lovers- which form much of the computing community, it could thus be construed that if Yahoo were to form an alliance with MSN, they would be selling out, and contributing to increasing the already significant control MSN and Microsoft have over our computing experience not just online. Now I’m looking at this from a consumer perspective, but really Yahoo is in a position of power regardless of who they choose to partner with it was always going to benefit yahoo, by choosing Google, it seems that really they’ve done the right thing for the computing industry over all, by reducing the control MSN have, this being said, for the SEO PPC and affiliate industry this could cause ripples, for one it increases our reliance on Google which, lets face it was always a bit of  worry before the Yahoo Google relationship, and this really has done anything to make me sleep better at night, lets just how that all three are sufficiently moderated by Governments and legal bodies.

So what does the future hold?Probably increased integration of Googles PPC tools onto the Yahoo platform, and an increase in the integration of tools such as yahoo messenger, yahoo answers and other community and customer loyalty tools. Naturally the search algorithms that are so significant for all online marketers will  probably fall more inline with the Google algorithms than the yahoo, the scary thing about this is Google, now dictate who gets listed in their searches. Its all a bit bitter sweet, and in all honesty only time will tell if this will have any impact on the way companies are advertised and represented online. One thing is for clear, Google has become even more of a giant, with more control, and any innovations we once saw as a result of the manage a trios of MSN Google and Yahoo now cease to exist, after all, Google now sets the standard and has such a large market share, that there is simply no way that even MSN can present a viable competition to Google’s position as market dominator in the online arena.