The long awaited and much talked about search deal between two of the internet’s oldest entities, Microsoft and Yahoo! has finally been cemented and all set to go into effect. This all new search deal is aimed at providing a stark competition to the search behemoth, Google. The deal was announced in the month of July this year and after a few months of negotiations has finally been signed off by both the parties.

The Microsoft-Yahoo! deal will now face its biggest adversary, the federal regulators. If and when the deal’s terms are cleared by the federal agency, Microsoft will begin powering Yahoo’s search engine by the middle of the year 2010. The search was proposed after a long standing acquisition battle last year, when Microsoft tried to buy out Yahoo! For $47.5 billion.

However, both companies later resolved their differences to unite in their fight against Google’s ever increasing dominance over the internet. As of now, Yahoo’s search service rank second in the world, after Google’s, which is in the first place and Microsoft Bing has attained the third spot. Even, with this alliance between these two major players, many analysts still believe, that its going to take a lot of innovation and dedicated efforts for these firms to give a competition to Google, a name that has now become synonymous with virtually every aspect of the online world.

Here is an excerpt from the Press Release for the Yahoo! – Microsoft Search Deal.

“Microsoft and Yahoo! believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value, and more innovation. Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010.”

Via Yahoo! Press Room.