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Back in 2008 it seemed we couldn’t do anything about hearing something about Microsoft buying up Yahoo.  The deal never worked, possibly because of then Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang who seemed to dislike the idea.  But, Yahoo now has a new CEO, Carol Bartz, and it seems she might be more open to the idea of being bought by Microsoft.

According to unnamed sources in both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, Microsoft and Yahoo are once again in talks.  The talks may not be for a full buyout as the earlier ones were, but for a potential partial buyout.  Microsoft could potentially just end up turning over its Internet display functions to Yahoo, and let Yahoo take control of both its and Microsoft’s online ad display.  It could potentially make Microsoft and Yahoo a stronger opponent to Google in the Internet search advertising market, which is owned and dominated by Google.

Even if the ideas being floated now are for partial buyouts or partnerships, both companies may need them to compete.  Google has such a commanding lead in Internet search and advertising, that just trying to improve on what Google does isn’t working out too well for Microsoft and Yahoo.  The two might need these possible ideas to work out if they want to really compete.  Even if the two do combine their efforts, it remains to be seen if they could still compete with Google.  With so many services that Google offers, its sometimes just easier to use Google because its right there at the top of the page when using all of them.  Although, maybe Microsoft and Yahoo can work on some cloud computing to compete with Google, which might draw some users away from Google.

Read [Information Week]