Google is looking eagerly to getting into a deal with Yahoo. Microsoft had mentioned a possible partnership between Google and Yahoo as a reason for scuttling of the deal. Google on the other hand is looking forward to a deal to boost its profits above expectations in 2009.

An excerpt from Yahoo News

"We have been talking to Yahoo and we are very excited to be working with them," Google co-founder Sergey Brin told reporters before the company's annual shareholders meeting. "We share a lot of values with them."

Neither Brin nor Google Chairman Eric Schmidt would indicate how far along the two sides are in their negotiations after a two-week test was completed last month. During the trial run, Google supplied a small portion of the text-based ads that appeared alongside the search results on Yahoo's Web site.

A partnership between the two web giants would make for some serious judicial scrutiny. But there are ways in which Google will seek to pass the deal through.

Another excerpt from the article

Although Schmidt wouldn't specify how Google might address the antitrust issues, analysts have speculated that it could be done by running the partnership as an auction-style system that would allow other rivals, including Microsoft, to show ads on Yahoo.

A partnership here might keep Yahoo away from Microsoft but it would also bolster Google's position in the online advertising market. Something that Microsoft can ill afford. Also, in the long term, it will only make Google that much more stronger a web company. Perhaps that is not what Jerry Yang is worry about right now with all the ire that he may be facing from Yahoo's skeptical investors.