Just got this email from Yahoo… mighty interesting things appear to be brewing. I wonder what it will all mean!

—

Dear Advertiser,

Yahoo! and Microsoft have now received regulatory clearance to form a search alliance. This is a significant milestone and an exciting first step in our combined effort to help you reach even more customers with greater ease and efficiency.

What’s Ahead

There will be no immediate changes to your Yahoo! Search Marketing account. Both companies are committed to making this transition as seamless and beneficial to you as possible. Our aim is a high quality transition of advertisers and partners in at least the U.S. prior to the 2010 holiday season. However, we may wait until 2011 if we determine this will be more effective. Approximately three months in advance, we’ll begin providing you with detailed information about what to expect and how we will assist you.

How the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance Will Benefit You

Once implemented, the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance will enable you to:

Reach more customers.
• Reach up to 150 million searchers(1)9 and get approximately 62% more search volume(2) than on Yahoo! alone through a new, unified search marketplace combining the Yahoo! and Microsoft networks.
• To help drive future growth in search volume, Yahoo! will continue to significantly enhance the search experience on our leading web properties.

Save valuable time and effort.
• You’ll log into one place–Microsoft’s adCenter–to manage campaigns, for greater efficiency and a better ROI.
• With just one buy, you’ll reach users on Yahoo! and Microsoft sites, as well as other premium partner sites.

Benefit from rapid innovation.
• Yahoo! will deliver new features and innovations to the world’s favorite online destinations, content, and web products used by hundreds of millions of consumers to connect to the people and things that matter to them most.
• Microsoft will innovate the underlying technologies that drive high quality algorithmic and paid search results.

We appreciate your business and look forward to bringing the benefits of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance to you. In the meantime, please refer to the resources below:

Sincerely,

Your Partners at Yahoo!

1. comScore custom data, December 2009
2. comScore qSearch December, 2009