Blogging Less, Twittering More...Plus YHOO & GOOG Are Up to Something

In case you haven't noticed, my blog posts here are fewer and farther between these days, just because I'm so damn busy. (I'll tell you why soon.) But thank god somebody invented microblogging(!), because it sure is easier and faster. I'm sure many of you have seen the accompanying cartoon strip. But it's true -- Twitter has definitely allowed me, with my crazy schedule, to keep putting forth some of my observations and perspectives on the world around me. I'm grateful for that.

Latest case in point: I Twittered earlier today about how Yahoo's already reporting positive results from its test with Google to outsource search to the latter. Well, it's not really the company directly reporting that -- rather, it's the proverbial "people familiar with the matter," according to the WSJ. (But that would most likely be Yahoo or Google employees who asked the reporter not to identify them.)  A Citigroup Global Markets analyst even said this deal could increase Yahoo's cash flow a whopping $1 billion per year.

Some would say this latest "leak" is all about Yahoo trying to get a better price per share from Microsoft. I don't agree. Google has more to do than help Yahoo shareholders get another buck or two. I think Yahoo very seriously wants to avoid the Microsoft deal and is working overtime to find a better alternative.  And Google obviously has the incentive to help them do that. I don't think the latest Yahoo move is just posturing at all. As the Journal says, the only other tie-up that seems to be possible right now is a deal with Time Warner's AOL, wherein the latter would become a 20% owner of Yahoo. However, the matter of who will win Yahoo seems far from over to me yet. I like to think that News Corp. hasn't really played its ultimate hand, for example. And, of course, being that they now own the WSJ, I don't find it surprising that the writer of today's article didn't quote anyone on that possibility.