Joe Joe Joeeee.

I'm disappointed in you. You must either be really feeling this Microsoft mating with Yahoo thing, or you're posturing to lure some Microsoft mouth to tell you a little more than what can be seen.

We're living through the birth pangs of a new age. History books will be written about the maneuvers being made... and the average Joe (no, not you, Joe. And average Joe.) is completely ignorant and unclued.

Which is why the average Joe needs an above average Joe to explain the real scenario. I realise you have to cuddle your sources, but, one word of advice: they would like to be able to get their story out to at least somebody who can right the perception and make them look good for the coming day of reckoning... which, Mister Spitzer may have found, will always come... because you can't.

Yahoo needs to lose this offer with all the crap they're pulling. I realize being owned by Microsoft would be a fate worse than death for Yahoo's founding members (They can longer scream, "Kill M$!") but they are dying regardless, whether they want to admit it or not.

In a couple years Google will dominate everything if left unchallenged on the web and the difference between Microsoft's survival vs. Yahoo is that M$ has revenue coming in from OUTSIDE of the internet.

If Yahoo passes on this, you'll see it doing so-so for the next couple years (externally), with whatever company they get in bed with (probably AOL). Then, the company will take a sharp nosedive (its innovation/product cycles are too long and usually underwhelming - their best stuff is bought outright) and will turn into an internet relic rather than leading service provider.

Yahoo and Microsoft's only chance of becoming a true competitor to Google is by merging. And like it or not, Microsoft is the one who has the money to buy Yahoo, NOT the other way around.

@Scott C.:
I don't doubt that Yahoo's future isn't all that bright if it tries to go it alone. Perhaps the reason that they are getting with Google is that they realize this also.

But if they are bought by Microsoft, they will die. Perhaps they also feel that, in the worst case, it's still better to be free and die than to languish in prison or in slavery and die.

And Yahoo's officers have no legal or moral obligation to bend to the whims of Steve Ballmer.

And what's up with Ballmer's overbearing ego? It's OK with him if Microsoft owns a desktop monopoly and leverages that monopoly to dominate other markets? But it's not OK with him if Google happens to be the place that most people go to search the internet?

Of course, I really am not complaining. It's Ballmer's poisonous attitude and Vista's "WOW This is bad!" entry in the desktop PC market that is driving competition and gives the best hope of eventually releasing Microsoft's crushing stranglehold on the world.

@Philosopher

It may sound weird, but I'm glad there's a monopoly in the OS world and most people use Windows. Heck, if the world was 90% Mac and 5% Windows I wouldn't care either. the point is, an OS is simply a TOOL that provides the groundwork for every app imaginable that can be done by anyone.

However, when it comes to the internet, you DON'T want a monopoly on Search. If ANY company controls the majority of the market, they will end up controlling it all eventually. And whereas Windows simply interprets information, Google determines what information you're allowed to see.

Now because Google is trying to be the anti-Microsoft by offering all of its services for "free", the masses support it without a second thought of WHY everything Google is "free". In truth truth, it's NOT free at all. Google charges users for its services in the form of personal information. You have to believe that somewhere Google has a record of everything it looks for and for who and at any time can access that info to deliver "customized" search results...and data for advertisers.

If anyone bothers to remember back to the early 00s, they'll remember a far different Google...and Yahoo...and even MSN. With the introduction of SEO and keywords getting relevant, unbiased data off the internet has become an absolute nightmare.

Google needs to be stopped and Microsoft knows it. It knows it will never displace Google as the no. 1 search provider - they just don't want it to get too big...because if they were in their shoes, they know exactly what they'd do.

Yahoo is just the idiot company between the two who happens to have a 15% market share in Search. It doesn't help that they are thinking with their wallets than their heads...but then again, aren't all internet companies simply about making the most money in the fast time possible?

With that said, I hope this deal goes through and every high-level Yahoo employee responsible for trying to squash it gets axed as punishment. If it doesn't, I hope Yahoo realizes its mistake 5 years from now when Microsoft won't even offer a third of what its offering now (if anything at all) for a near dead internet portal.

Google has a monopoly on search? Just because everyone wants to go there doesn't constitute a monopoly. It's free, it's fast, and it's (mostly) accurate. It's like honey: just because most people like it doesn't make honey a monopoly.

On the other hand, Windows is much more than tool. It's a source of increasingly heavy taxes on computing. It's a source of threats of legal action if you attempt to use or develop alternatives. And with Vista, it's about giving up control over the PC you bought.

Yahoo may or may not be an idiot company, but they don't owe Microsoft the time of day. It's their company to do as they choose.

Google may not be free because it charges for its services in the form of collected information. Whether or not they tie that directly to you and I is open for debate. But Microsoft increasingly adds this cost to their software, and they charge you money in addition, and they threaten to sue you if you use an alternative.

Unbiased data from the internet has always been open to question. Long before Google, newsgroups offered 1000 different opinions for 1000 different people.

And the SEO problem you mention is just another way to say "Google owes me a living and they won't give it to me." Too bad. My favorite plumber doesn't even have a web site and he doesn't show up in a Google search. But he shows up on time to every job, does a superb job, backs up his work without question. And that's why he's in successful in business. Idiots who hope for Google to help them because their own brains fail them aren't worth anything either way and deserve to suffer. Ad clicks are of questionable value, and so is SEO. It's all a house of cards (but then, so is the stock market, but I digress).

Google is the #1 search destination because it works better than that Ask crap, crippled Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, and others.

You hope that Yahoo officers who resist your precioussssssss Microsoft are severely punished. I hope those Yahoo officers are rewarded for resisting the offers of an unwanted suitor.