Facts about the Yahoo-Google advertising agreement

This deal will preserve competition in the online marketplace. This agreement - unlike Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo! - means that Yahoo! will remain an independent company in the business of search and advertising. Yahoo! has stated that it will reinvest the additional revenue from this agreement into improving its user services and competing vigorously against Google, Microsoft and other companies. This gives all companies the continued incentive to keep improving and innovating.

The agreement won't affect Yahoo!'s natural search results. Yahoo! will continue to operate its own search engine, and Google's share of search traffic will not increase. In addition, the agreement is non-exclusive, meaning Yahoo! could make a similar deal with another company.

Finally, this kind of arrangement is commonplace in many industries, and it doesn't foreclose robust competition. Toyota sells its hybrid technology to Ford, even though they compete against one another in selling cars. Canon provides laser printer engines for HP, despite also competing in the broader laser printer market. Google and Yahoo! will continue to be vigorous competitors, and that competition will help fuel innovation that is good for users.