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"It shouldn't come as a surprise to readers that the folks over at Google might not be totally stoked on the potential merger of Microsoft and Yahoo!. If you weren't sure where the company stood on the issue, you can now get clued in thanks to a post on the official Google Blog earlier today. David Drummond, senior VP of corporate development (and the company's chief legal officer) says that he worries the acquisition of the internet portal by a company that has \"frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies\" could \"extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the internet.\" His concern centers around the possibility that the combination of the two monoliths could \"unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services.\" Sure, Google has more than a little stake in seeing fair play on the net (gotta keep those ad revenues up), but this is serious food for thought nonetheless.Update: It looks like the war of words is really starting to heat up. Brad Smith, general counsel for Microsoft, has issued his own little statement here, telling us that Google holds far more marketshare when it comes to internet searching than a combined Microsoft and Yahoo! possibly could, and then going on to explain that the Redmond giant is \"committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy.\" Uh, whatever you say Brad.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/03/google-questions-microsofts-bid-for-yahoo/>