Microsoft and Yahoo May Not Be Enough to Fell Google

A Microsoft/Yahoo combination would pose a greater challenge to Google, but it's not at all clear the search engine behemoth would be greatly affected, NPR reports. Google owns about 60% of the search market—three times that of Microsoft and Yahoo combined. And, perhaps more to the point, it is a household word. "Google has become a verb," notes one analyst.

Is bigger even better, with Yahoo struggling to the point where the once dominant Internet company is a takeover target, and Microsoft failing to gain any significant traction with its own search alternative? "If it comes together and all we do is get an accumulation of both companies' problems, it's not going be a good ending," another analyst says. (More Microsoft Live Search stories.)