On the BBC News website, they posed the question "Will Yahoo benefit from a takeover by Microsoft?".
Is that really the point?
Surely it should be "Will the users benefit from....".
Of course Yahoo will benefit - or at least the owners will. They'll end up with a big, fat wad of money.
Will Microsoft benefit? Of course. Along with Yahoo, they've been struggling to gain market share of the Search Engine Business - totally peeved by Google's dominance.
Will the users benefit? Maybe. Maybe not. Those who dislike Microsoft will start to migrate - probably to Google. Those who use Microsoft's search engine already will initially benefit from a larger database and get improved results.
Those who Google almost exclusively (myself included) will probably not notice any difference and will continue to Google.
I can't see Google losing any of their share of the market, and there's a distinct possibility that they will gain from it.
Will the bosses of Google have any sleepless nights? Probably, but not too many. They're already objecting to the possible takeover. But anyone in a strong position will protect their territory.
Of course there is always the possibility that they are objecting so that the whole process gets drawn out over a few years and Yahoo or Microsoft pull out of the deal.
Will it affect online marketing? Not very much. It might swing SEO a little towards Yahoo and MSN Search, but otherwise it won't make much difference. After all, the bottom line is that online marketers don't care which search engine you came from as long as you buy something!
