Well, it is official: Google has now infiltrated Yahoo via ads. Has Google found the back door in to taking over the struggling company, or is it truly only in this for good, not evil, as per the famous Google motto? Google took the time to release a statement about the new ad arrangement with Yahoo on its blog as a kind of preemptive strike against just that kind of speculation.
I could be wrong on this, but I just don’t think it is that big of a deal. I think my fellow Profy editor Cyndy probably disagrees with me, but my opinion is that this will not cause Google to have some kind of evil monopoly over search advertising. Perhaps I am too willing to take the deal at face value, but the non-exclusivity of it is a big factor for me in my willingness to believe that Google is not, in fact, trying to take over the world.
The rest of the blogosphere is not so willing to take things at face value. Over the course of the weekend we’ve seen heavy hitters Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media sparking debates by taking completely opposing sides on the matter (Arrington taking the “world is ending” tack and O’Reilly the calmer “all is well” view). Each of them has a thriving comment debate going about each side of the issue.