Yahoo-Google-Microsoft Show Hits Capital Hill This Week

This week Google is off to capital hill to try to get congress to OK their deal with Yahoo.

In written testimony submitted by Google to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the company’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, said the “ad deal with Yahoo is good for consumers, advertisers and Web publishers”.

“The whole system becomes more efficient: People see and click on more ads that are useful to them, publishers get more revenue from ads on their sites and advertisers get more potentially interested customers,” Drummond said.

Drummond said the deal was better for competition than Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo.

“Unlike other alternatives, such as Microsoft breaking up Yahoo by acquiring Yahoo’s search assets or taking over all of Yahoo, this arrangement will not remove a competitor from the playing field,” he said.

Drummond also quoted an executive from the ad firm Avenue A/Razorfish, who said the deal would be good for advertisers.

The ad agency Avenue A/RAzorfish is a Microsoft subsidiary.

“When Microsoft’s own ad firm which knows online advertising best confirms the beneefits of the agreement for advertisers, we should rest our case right there,” Drummond said.

Microsoft is adamantly opposed to the Google-Yahoo deal.

The agreement between Google and Yahoo, signed last month, allows Yahoo to run ads sold by Google on its search pages and other Yahoo Web sites.

Yahoo says the ad deal could bring the company $800 million each year, which it plans to reinvest in both its struggling search business and its display-ad business.

A Senate Judiciary subcommittee will hear from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft during a morning hearing Tuesday. A House subcommittee will hear from the companies in the afternoon.