It's Official: Microsoft and Yahoo! team up to fight Google

CNN Money is reporting that Microsoft and Yahoo have reached an agreement to integrate search technologies and share revenue in their ongoing battle for search supremacy. Both companies trail Google, who currently enjoys a 65% market share. Even though Microsoft attempted to purchase Yahoo last year, this is a somewhat surprising development in the world of search advertising.

Read on past the break for more details about this new deal!

Details of the ten-year agreement indicate that Yahoo searches will now be backed by Microsoft's relaunched and rebranded search engine Bing, while allowing Microsoft to integrate aspects of Yahoo's search engine into the software. In addition, revenue for search ads will be shared between the two companies, with a larger share going to Yahoo.

This is an interesting move for the deal that fell sour last summer, especially considering that Yahoo recently made a deal with Google to place Google ads in Yahoo results. It's good to see that Yahoo avoided takeover or having to merge entirely with Microsoft, and it'll be interesting to see what the future holds for all three of these companies.

While I doubt that this will topple Google's reign, this should keep Microsoft and Yahoo contending for search ad revenue for some time. What do you think of the deal? What do you expect out of your search engine? Be sure to leave your comments below!