Greetings. It is being reported that after continuing resistance from DOJ and other quarters, Google and Yahoo may be on the verge of calling off their proposed ad sharing arrangement.

While I understand the concerns raised by detractors of the plan, I can't help but feel that collapse of the partnership would be a gigantic nail in Yahoo's coffin, and ultimately a blow against vibrant competition in the ad serving marketplace.

The Google/Yahoo proposal represents a means to get cash to Yahoo at just the time when Yahoo needs it most. If the plan vaporizes, the odds of Yahoo continuing for very long as a stand-alone enterprise would seem markedly worsened. This would ultimately most likely represent a significant contraction of competition, not an improvement.

My gut feeling is that a lot of folks complaining about this proposed arrangement couldn't care less about Yahoo -- or the real state of ad competition. What they really want to do is simply "stick it" to Google. If Yahoo disintegrates, and we end up with even less ad competition in the long run -- oh well, them's the breaks seems to be the prevailing attitude amongst this crowd.

For anyone genuinely interested in ad serving competition, this seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face -- painful, unwise, and in the end likely to bring about the very outcome that they ostensibly wish to avoid.

In other words, pretty dumb.

--Lauren--