Yesterday morning, headlines of all major online news sites were touting that a deal had finally been agreed upon by Yahoo and Microsoft (Bing) regarding the companies search offerings. While the deal still has to get through all the legal hoops that come with two giant companies working together in this way, it’s still big news in the search industry.

The proposed arrangement will allow for Bing powered organic searches to be fed into Yahoo’s search engine. So, when you go to Yahoo to search for something, you’ll actually see the same results as you would on Bing. In exchange, Yahoo is supposed to bring more quality advertisers to the Microsoft AdCenter platform. Basically the two companies decided that Bing has the better organic search system and advertising platform, while Yahoo becomes the advertising sales team. In Yahoo’s press release the company states:

For Web users and advertisers, this deal will accelerate the pace and breadth of innovation by combining both companies’ complementary strengths and search platforms into a market competitor with the scale to fuel sustained development in search and search advertising. Users will find what they care about faster and with more personal relevance. Microsoft’s competitive search platforms will lead to more value for advertisers, better results for Web publishers, and increased innovation and efficiency across the Internet. (Yahoo)

While we here at Anvil will definitely keep our eye on the unfolding of these changes, assuming things go smoothly through the American and European courts, no changes will be seen on either site for about a year. For now, it is business as usual for both Bing and Yahoo, and any of our client’s SEO and PPC efforts.

Stay tuned, it could be a fun legal battle with MicroHoo in one corner and the reigning champion Google in the other!