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According to the latest Hitwise stats, Google is continuing to marginalize both Yahoo and Microsoft in terms of search share.  But if you take Google out of the equation and look at a few other areas, the two companies' numbers are really pretty impressive.

Kip Kniskern, who got his data from Nielsen, notes, "The purpose of this little exercise was not to show trends, or make comparisons to other sites/properties, but just to get a bit of a handle on where the two companies sit in relation to each other, and what a potential joining of forces might mean."

 (Photo Credit: Liveside.net)

A glance at MSN/Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger, for example, shows unique audiences of about 24 and 22 million Americans in February, respectively.  If you add them up (and ignore whatever overlap is sure to occur), that equals 46 million individuals on tap.

A similar addition between the MSNBC Digital Network and Yahoo News results in a sum of 69 million people.  Combine email services' audiences, and it's possible there'd be a unique audience of 98 million individuals.  Finally, toss together the MSN and Yahoo homepages, and a unique audience of as many as 112 million folks might show up.

From all sorts of angles, the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo looks a bit questionable.  Still, in terms of tuned-in eyeballs, anything that can be compared to the series finale of "M*A*S*H" (which drew 106 million viewers in one night, not a month) deserves a little respect.