Yahoo To Microsoft: You Have No Chance In Search

Terry Semel, Yahoo's CEO, turned down Microsoft's offer to buy a part of Yahoo Search division, reports Financial Times.

"[We discussed] search, and Microsoft co-owning some of our search. I will not sell a piece of search – it is like selling your right arm while keeping your left; it does not make any sense."

"My impartial advice to Microsoft is that you have no chance. The search business has been formed."

"I do not expect [web] search to decline but it may not be the way you do it two or three years later," he said. "Is web search the killer application or just the first? Knowledge search, as they call it in Korea, or social search, as we call it, has blown through the roof. There may be changing dynamics."

What have we learnt? Microsoft has to improve its search engine by itself. Or else, it won't be the default search engine in IE7 for too long. Even if the Department of Justice agrees.

More from Search Engine War:
Terry Semel wish he had bought Google in 2001
Microsoft found how to win Google battle
Google vs. Microsoft: I want to be the default search engine in IE7