Google-Yahoo ad deal off, Microsoft in the wings?

The Google-Yahoo advertising deal that was a relic of Yahoo’s defense against a Microsoft takeover has been abandoned because of an inability to satisfy the concerns of US regulators:

Google Inc. has scrapped its Internet advertising partnership with struggling rival Yahoo Inc., abandoning attempts to overcome the objections of antitrust regulators and customers who believed the alliance would give Google too much power over online commerce.

The retreat announced Wednesday represented another setback for Yahoo, which had been counting on the Google deal to boost its annual revenue by $800 million and placate shareholders still incensed by management’s decision to reject a $47.5 billion takeover bid from Microsoft Corp. six months ago.

Google backed off after the U.S. Justice Department said it would sue to block the Yahoo deal to preserve competition in the Internet’s rapidly growing advertising market.

“The arrangement likely would have denied consumers the benefits of competition — lower prices, better service and greater innovation,” said Thomas Barnett, an assistant attorney general who oversees the Justice Department’s antitrust division.

Without Google’s help, Yahoo now may feel more pressure to renew talks with Microsoft and ultimately sell for a price well below the $33 per share that Microsoft offered in May. Yahoo shares traded Wednesday morning at just $14.05, gaining 70 cents in a move reflecting investor hopes that Microsoft might renew its pursuit.

So will Microsoft try again at a much lower price? There are a lot of good buys in today’s depressed stock market, but is Yahoo one of them?

Google Security

Google is always adding new products and features. One of these is the Personalized Google Homepage. You can customize it with news, movies, weather, stock market reports and more. How convenient. But there is a dark side.

Google saves your search history. Every person, place, thing, or word you look up is stored in your history (BTW-same goes for the Google Toolbar). This can be cleared or paused on your end, but it will still be saved on the Google server. It's in their Privacy Policy:

"You can delete information from My Search History, and it will be removed from the service and no longer available to you. However, as is common practice in the industry, and as outlined in the Google Privacy Policy, Google maintains a separate logs system for auditing purposes and to help us improve the quality of our services for users."

So, if you have a Personalized Google Homepage, here's how to at least manage history items on your end...

Click the "My Search History" link then "Remove Items". Put a check next to the items on the list you want removed, or select "All". Finally, hit the "Remove" button.

If you don't want Search History activated, just click the "Pause" link. Again, the search info still goes to Google, but it doesn't show up in your search history display. To turn S.H. back on just hit "Resume".

As I mentioned, the Google Toolbar also keeps your history, but it doesn't track you like the Personalized Homepage. To turn off...

Go to the "Options" button and select the "Search" tab.

Uncheck "drop down search history", "Save the search history...", and "Automatically search..."

Hit OK.

Now your toolbar searches are known only to you. As for the personal homepage searches... at least no one outside of Google or the government can see what you looked up.