Yahoo to test Google AdSense; in alliance talks with AOL

10 April 2008

Ater years of battling its larger search engine rival for online advrtising, Yahoo has said that it would launch a limited test of Google's AdSense for search services, drawing a sharp response from unbidden suitor Microsoft, which warned that a Yahoo-Google alliance would cover some 90 per cent of online advertising.    

Yahoo yesterday announced a two-week experiment during which it will show search-driven Google advertements alongside its own search results on the Yahoo website.

However, the test will be run on traffic from yahoo.com in the US and will not include Yahoo's network of affiliate or premium publisher partners.  Moreover, it  will be limited to up three per cent of Yahoo search queries.   

However, commentators  speculate that this could lead to a broader deal in which Yahoo lets Google sell search advertising for it in while Yahoo focuses on online brand ads, boosting its own revenues and freeing up resourcces for investments in areas of its strength.

Calling it an astute move, analysts say that Yahoo has at last made a move to escape Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid. At the same time Yahoo is reportedly talking to rival internet portal AOL about a merger.

Yahoo said the testing does not necessarily mean it will "join the AdSense for Search programme or that any further commercial relationship with Google will result."