waffle

(See: “Choice. Value. Innovation.”: The Annoucement)

“This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development,” said Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz.

This agreement is bad for the industry and bad for Yahoo! users. This agreement comes with boatloads of money for Yahoo!, though.

“Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides.”

Even though we’re pioneers, companies have been leeching off of the more successful technologies of more successful companies for years. In fact, this licensing move is the most beneficial to customers, most likely to succeed and most conducive to innovation since the HP iPod, except that people actually kind of liked HP and iPods.

Providing a viable alternative to advertisers, this deal will combine Yahoo! and Microsoft search marketplaces so that advertisers no longer have to rely on one company that dominates more than 70 percent of all search. With the addition of Yahoo!’s search volume, Microsoft will achieve the size and scale required to unleash competition and innovation in the market, for consumers as well as advertisers.

Beleaguered Microsoft will finally be able to break free of the haunting shackles of low market share and kick some serious ass.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the agreement will provide Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, the scale necessary to more effectively compete, attracting more users and advertisers, which in turn will lead to more relevant ads and search results.

The reason people aren’t using Bing is because, despite being the preselected search engine in the highest volume web browser in the world, shipped with the highest volume operating system in the world, and recently superseding the second Microsoft-run search engine of that lineage in a decade-long scheme, people just can’t seem to locate it.

“Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers, and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company,” said Ballmer.

Three big choices is much less likely to stimulate competition than two big choices. Haven’t you seen Star Wars, man? Light Side vs Dark Side’s where it’s at.

We’re which side again?

“This deal fits the long-term strategic direction of Yahoo! to remain the world’s leading online media company and Carol Bartz has the full and unanimous support of the Yahoo! Board behind this deal,” said Roy Bostock, chairman, Yahoo! Inc. “This is a significant opportunity for us. Microsoft is an industry innovator in search, and it is a great opportunity for us to focus our investments in other areas critical to our future.”

I am high as a kite.