Access important files from anywhereYahoo-Google ad deal 'still on track'
Carl Icahn notwithstanding, Yahoo's deal to use Google search advertisements is still a go.
The partnership, which is designed to increase Yahoo's ad revenue, is "still on track," a source familiar with the partnership said, and an announcement is expected next week. That aligns well with reports in the New York Post and Reuters.
Take this schedule with a grain of salt. I've been snooping around on this particular deal for a while now, and plans to announce it have slipped several times. Jerry Yang and Yahoo's other top executives are reckoning with Icahn, which has to be consuming a lot of time.
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer lambasted the Yahoo-Google ad deal as handing over even more search-ad dominance to Google and, in effect, making Yahoo vastly less desirable. And there are antitrust concerns, though Google executives seem to think it's not a big worry.
Even if the deal goes through and Icahn's agitating yields a new deal with Microsoft, it's possible that Yahoo could just switch it off without too much harm done. Even a short-term deal might well the engineers who worked long and hard on Yahoo's Panama search-ad system to spruce up their resumes, however.
Stephen Shankland covers Google, Yahoo, search, online advertising, portals, digital photography, and related subjects. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered servers, supercomputing, open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen.
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