WebProNews

That limited two-week trial of AdSense for Search showing up in some Yahoo search results could be painful for Yahoo to see.

Google and Yahoo tread a fine line over the involvement of the dominant search advertising company with Microsoft's desired takeover target, Yahoo. An announced test of AdSense for Search from Google in a thin slice of Yahoo's search pages was a necessarily limited effort.

Microsoft promptly complained of Google's involvement. To Microsoft, any tie-up that would hand all of Yahoo's paid search to Google puts over 90 percent of the search ad market in Google's lap, Microsoft's general counsel Brad Smith observed.

Google's appeal to Yahoo, said the New York Times, comes from the vastly greater return Google's ads may provide. "By Yahoo’s own projections, Google earns on average 60 percent to 70 percent more for every search than Yahoo," the report said.

Suggestions made in the past called for Yahoo to give paid search to Google, and enjoy the greater profitability. Google's adherence to ad relevance to the searches people make turned the search company into a multi-billion dollar giant.

If anything, Yahoo's failure to mimic Google's approach speaks volumes about its management and its missed opportunities, especially over the last couple of years where Yahoo's stock fell while development of a more relevant contextual ad system took place. Too little, too late, and too much of a bargain for Microsoft to pass by.