对互联网领域来说，这无疑是件重大的事情。微软和雅虎终于达成了就网络搜索和广告合作方面为期10年的协议。本次合作是在7月29日周三公布的，虽然没有想象中那样神圣，但对网联界巨头——谷歌公司来说，无疑是个很大的挑战。

Microsoft and Yahoo! strike a long-awaited deal

USERS will probably not notice all that much. But the deal may be seen one day as a significant event in the internet industry. Microsoft and Yahoo!, the world’s biggest software firm and its leading online portal （入口）respectively, have reached a deal for a ten-year web search and advertising partnership after years of speculation about a tie-up. The combination, which was announced on Wednesday July 29th, is not as far-reaching as originally envisaged（想象，设想）. But it is likely to create a serious rival to Google, the online giant that dominates both of these markets.

The agreement is supposed to help both parties overcome their most pressing problems. Microsoft will increase significantly the use of its search service, called Bing, and its platform to serve online advertisements. Yahoo! will use both of them on its websites. The web portal, for its part, will be able to cut costs and increase revenues. Yahoo! will no longer have to invest millions in its search and advertising technology. It will also get more money for the ads placed next to its search results. Carol Bartz, Yahoo!'s boss, said that the tie-up “comes with boatloads of value” for her firm.

The deal is the result of a long mating dance which started in earnest early in 2008. In February last year Microsoft made a $44.6 billion takeover bid for Yahoo!, later raising its offer to $47.5 billion. But Yahoo!’s management then rebuffed（粗暴拒绝） Microsoft, regarding the offer as undervaluing the company. Instead Yahoo! entered into an advertising dalliance with Google, but this fell apart after antitrust （反垄断）authorities signalled that they would not approve such an agreement. Talks between Microsoft and Yahoo! were rekindled （使再燃）after Ms Bartz took the helm（舵） at Yahoo! in January. She is less emotionally attached to maintaining its independence than her predecessor（前辈）, Jerry Yang, one of the company’s founders.

Yet even for Ms Bartz the results of the negotiations must be somewhat disappointing. Yahoo! is said to have pushed for a whopping（巨大的） upfront payment of billions of dollars for agreeing to a deal with Microsoft—but it has not succeeded. What is more, the deal apparently only covers the text ads displayed alongside search results and not other forms of online ads. And although Yahoo! will use Microsoft’s advertising platform, the firm will continue to sell the ads itself. This will allow it to maintain relationships with advertisers, making it easier to sell them other kinds of ads.

The big question is whether this combination will be able to threaten Google’s dominance in web search. The deal will mean that Microsoft handles nearly 30% of searches in America—compared with Google’s 65% of the market. Microsoft’s share may well rise. It will be able to offer better search results because it will have more search data to improve its technology. Bing, which the firm launched in June, has already got off to a good start, gaining a couple of percentage points of the search market since then.

At any rate, the battle lines between Google and Microsoft are now clearly drawn. Earlier this month, Google announced that it is developing a free operating system for personal computers called Chrome OS, thus mounting a direct attack on Microsoft and its dominant Windows operating system. With the Yahoo! deal, Microsoft is now pushing into Google’s heartland. So the grand alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo! is part of an even bigger battle between the technology titans that is likely to drag on for years.

Keke View：美国微软公司和雅虎公司29日宣布达成互联网搜索业务合作协议。雅虎将在合作中负责在线广告销售，微软则将获得其觊觎已久的互联网用户搜索数据。如果双方最终实现合作，微软将成为仅次于谷歌公司的第二大互联网搜索巨头。
微软与雅虎当天宣布了这项有效期为10年的合作协议。根据协议内容，雅虎与微软将分享在双方网站上搜索广告产生的收入。雅虎将在合作前5年内保留雅虎网站全部搜索广告销售收入的88％，同时有权销售微软部分网站的搜索广告。