Yahoo to test Google AdSense; Microsoft objects

AFP, April, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — Yahoo, after years of battling Internet rival Google for online advertising, said Wednesday it would launch a limited test of Google's AdSense for Search service.

The announcement drew a sharp response from Microsoft, which warned that a Yahoo-Google partnership would cover some 90 percent of online advertising.

The test is expected to last up to two weeks and will be limited to no more than three percent of Yahoo search queries, Yahoo said in a statement. The program will deliver Google ads alongside Yahoo's own search results.

The Sunnyvale, California-based company said the test will apply only to traffic from yahoo.com in the US and will not include Yahoo's network of affiliate or premium publisher partners.

Yahoo said the testing does not necessarily mean it will "join the AdSense for Search program or that ...