WebProNews

The Yahoo search experience might at some point change in a very surprising way.  That Bing may take over, we've come to accept.  But at least one high-ranking Yahoo employee thinks Google could get a shot, too.

Let's talk about said employee for a moment.  Burke Culligan is the senior director of product planning and strategy over Yahoo's front page and My Yahoo, so he's in a good position to discuss significant adjustments.  Also, Culligan's worked for Yahoo since October of 2005, so it's not like he's some newbie who doesn't know the score.

Judge the next bit for yourself, then.

Joseph Tartakoff reported, "During an update on the status of the home page, Yahoo senior director Burke Culligan told analysts that the company was not opposed to letting users replace Yahoo search with Microsoft's Bing or even Google."

Culligan apparently explained, "Right now, we're not doing that but long-term that may not be out of the question.  We want to provide the best experience for the user and, in some way, if that was the best experience for the user we might be open to that."

This led Kit Eaton to speculate that the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo deal is falling apart.  Or perhaps Culligan was talking about what will happen after it expires in ten years.  Regardless, his comments were rather striking, and we'll keep an ear out for any denials or clarifications that follow.