Yahoo and Microsoft contemplating limited partnership arrangement

The discussions restarted a few weeks ago, and included a meeting between new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the technology blog AllThingsD reported Friday.

The two companies have intermittently talked about partnering in search engine advertising since last year after Microsoft's unsolicited $47.5 billion takeover bid for the Sunnyvale Web portal fell apart. Microsoft executives have championed a partnership as a way to better compete with search industry leader Google Inc. while underscoring that they are no longer interested in an acquisition.

Current discussions are aimed at finding ways for the pair to work together on a number of fronts, according to the report. One potential idea is for Microsoft to handle the search advertising business for both Web sites while Yahoo would handle all of the display advertising, capitalizing on its strength in banner ads.

Google and Microsoft reportedly courting "Twitter"

ATLANTA - Google and Microsoft are both reportedly courting microblogging service "Twitter" because of its search ad revenue potential, according to a report Thursday.

A Wall Street Journal blog reported that many experts think Twitter's instant 140-character format will be next big thing for search, which is dominated now by Mountain View-based Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), with Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) lagging behind.

Earlier this month media reports said Google was in talks to buy Twitter, with figure of $250 million to $1 billion bandied about.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone downplayed but didn't refute the rumors in a blog post later, writing "It should come as no surprise that Twitter engages in discussions with other companies regularly and on a variety of subjects," he said. "Our goal is to build a profitable, independent company and we're just getting started"

A deal for Twitter has long been rumored. Potential suitors have included Palo Alto-based Facebook Inc., which was reported to have made a half-billion-dollar offer last year.