Yahoo and eBay vs. Google and Dell

As summer approaches, the search engine wars heated up quite a bit this week. The stock prices for both Yahoo and Ebay rose this week as they announced a joint partnership to provide services to each other's customer base. Of particular interest to PPC advertisers, Yahoo has become the exclusive sponsored search provider to eBay. That potentially means more eyeballs for Yahoo Search Marketing ads.

Not to be outdone, Google countered with the announcment of a partnership with Dell computers. Of particular interest to organic search marketers, Dell computers will ship with the Google Toolbar and a co-branded Internet homepage. This will likely lead to even more searches on Google, who already control 50% of all Internet searches.

Neither of this is good news for MSN, who maintain a distant third in the search engine race. And Ask.com? Hopefully they won't go the way of Jeeves...

Read more on Cnn.com:
Yahoo, eBay announce partnership
Google chief: We're getting a Dell