Yahoo! has fought off the rivals of unwelcome suitor Microsoft, CEO Jerry Yang confirmed. Microsoft also confirmed it had retired from the fray, citing inability to agree a fair price for the resurgent search engine. With both search engines still independent, now is a great time for pay per click advertisers to capitalise. Read More

Yahoo! has faced the news with promises of an web 2.0 type transformation which will see new platforms developed to link together the whole suite of Yahoo apps. The plan is to create a more open, social and relevant web experience said Mr Yang. Having already inked a deal to provide pay per click users with the most transparent click fraud reporting system available, pay per click advertisers should expect more of the same offerings.

Microsoft’s takeover bid was all about eyeballs - the number of web users seeing its pay per click advertising and logging onto the search engine to seek out information online. With Microsoft now forced to take the long way around, the search engine is expected to sign smaller deals with a greater number of smaller companies. It will also need to build a more integrated showcase for its extensive suite of web programs if it intends to be a serious challenger for market share.

All of these developments are good news for pay per click advertisers considering both Yahoo and Microsoft as their platform of choice as competition between the two will likely improve the advertiser experience.