- Reuters, Wednesday, June 18, 2008 12 PM
Vint Cerf, one of the forefathers of the Internet and now Google VP, chief internet evangelist, spoke out about Google's recent Yahoo deal and the affect of the weak economy on the business of the Web
at a press conference for the OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy. "In the case of Yahoo, the company believes that it will be beneficial to assist Yahoo with its
experiment," Cerf said. "That's all this is: a non-exclusive arrangement to allow Yahoo to use at their discretion some of our advertising capability."
Last week, Yahoo finally ended merger
talks with Microsoft, agreeing instead to a search partnership with Google, under which Yahoo gets to deploy Google AdWords on its site at its own discretion. Google and Yahoo are the top two search
providers, which is why many expect the deal to receive hardcore regulatory scrutiny. Sources told Reuters that Microsoft is already reaching out to advocacy groups, saying the Google-Yahoo agreement
will "limit choices for advertisers and publishers."
In response, Cerf said, "We simply say we're trying to encourage competition in the environment and we'll take steps to assist where
that seems to be possible." Meanwhile, the Internet guru claimed that an economic downturn could be a positive thing for the Internet industry. "Information technology can sometimes substitute for
transportation," he said. "Information technology can also be used to more efficiently use scarce resources, so as an example we may increasingly turn to video conferencing or other kinds of
electronic media in order to avoid having to travel."
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