Yahoo! and Microsoft had struck a deal for a search and advertising partnership last July. The integration of the two search engines has finally started last month.
The deal was cleared, with regard to the Anti-trust laws, by the concerned authorities in February 2010. The two firms have now started testing both organic as well paid search results from Microsoft and Yahoo! Search.
The basic change which will now occur is that the search results from Microsoft’s search engine Bing will be displayed on the Yahoo! Search results page. The page will however continue to retain the features of Yahoo! Search along with its rich content and the various tools available on Yahoo! Search.
The tests are being conducted only in the U.S. and Canada and will reach up to 25% of users of Yahoo! Search.
Users will also find some difference in the search results display as Yahoo! is simultaneously testing some new configurations.
Users will be able to differentiate between the results received from Yahoo! And Microsoft as the results originating from Microsoft will be placed in boxes, while the other results will be from the Yahoo! Search Engine.
Yahoo1 will also be extending this combined search experience to users of Yahoo! Search Mobile in the near future.
It is hoped that the testing of organic search results in the U.S. and Canada will be completed by August or latest by September and for paid search results by October 2010.
