• Silicon Alley Insider, Thursday, June 19, 2008 11:16 AM

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang took a special trip to Capitol Hill yesterday to calm legislators' fears about a Google-Yahoo search partnership-fears that have no doubt been exacerbated by the intense lobbying efforts of a certain Google enemy. On Wednesday, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter to the Yahoo CEO, worrying that the deal would "have an anticompetitive impact on the online-search market, including the pricing of online-search advertising."

In the letter, Rep. Barton also posed pointed questions about how the venture came about and how search data would be used and stored. He also asked Yang to identify the data it would provide Google about searches conducted on its Web site. In a statement, presumably in answer to those questions, Yahoo told Silicon Alley Insider: "We structured the agreement with Google so that Yahoo won't transfer any personally identifiable information to Google without user consent."

The SAI report says that Yang didn't meet with Rep. Barton, but he did meet with Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee in an effort to quell concerns about the deal. Apparently, Google and Yahoo are claiming that search is not distinct from the rest of online advertising, but rather more like a cog in the wheel (right!), and that a partnership wouldn't result in Google domination.

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