The big news today is that Microsoft and Yahoo have finally announced their search agreement. This search agreement has been in the works for some time and at one time or another involved Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft in one way or another talking to the other or trying to block each other from talking to each other. It’s been a complicated mess, but finally, they’ve reached an agreement.

In terms of users who regularly use those search engines, the initial agreement sounds as if they will notice very few changes. Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, will now power both Bing’s search results as well as Yahoo’s search results. This includes both paid and organic listings. But in terms of user interface, Yahoo and Bing will still own their respective interfaces. Microsoft will get access to any current Yahoo search technologies and traffic information as part of this deal, which has some worried that Yahoo may become out of touch with their users.

In terms of how this will effect advertisers, here are a few excerpts from the press release:

• Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.
• Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.

So it just depends on what level of spend you have with each company as to how you will be serviced.

So where is Google during all of this? Well, Ballmer has been quoted by the Guardian as saying:

“We suspect we will face opposition from the competitor [Google],” he said on a conference call alongside the Yahoo chief executive, Carol Bartz. “The case of us coming together will provide more competition, not less. [However] we expect our competitor to be aggressive.”

Microsoft and Yahoo intend to file the deal document, of more than 100 pages, to anti-trust authorities in the US and Brussels, as well as other markets, next week. The companies hope to close the deal early next year.

The irony here is that when Google was talking with Yahoo about a similar deal last year, Microsoft was the one most aggressively lobbying against the deal. In any case, the next step necessary for the Microsoft / Yahoo deal to go through is for them to pass government regulatory review.

The search landscape never has a shortage of drama or intrigue. So what are your thoughts? Is the Microsoft / Yahoo deal good for either company long term or you as a marketer? Let us know in the comments.