This article was found on Google Community; Posted by “geekerati”.

From Search Engine Watch

The rumors of a Google-Yahoo merger have leaked out, so I’m considering the embargo on that news off and will go ahead and tell what I know so far.

As Andy notes and Barry also mentions, there is indeed an agreement between the two companies that has been worked out. Neither company wanted the news to come out today, April Fool’s Day. After all, Google watched how the major news of its Gmail rollout last year simply wasn’t believed by some, because it came on April Fool’s.

The merger, if allowed by investors not to mention regulators, would be colossal. We’ve had search mergers before, but never between two players that command such a large share of the search market. Combined, the two would control something like 70 percent of the “natural” search results that people see and nearly all of the paid listings out there.

Why would these two competitors — and companies with largely different operating styles — combine? Fear of Microsoft. While I’ve written many times before that Microsoft isn’t going to walk all over Google — much less both Google and Yahoo — the two companies themselves are falling victim to the hype. Search is seen as so important, such a major future money maker, that they want to unite now.

An amazing number of details have yet to be worked out. We joked about a GooHoo site before, but that’s actually one of the names being considered. Many within Google are arguing that there’s no way the company name — a synonym to some for search — can be dropped. The leading compromise is that the company itself will be called Google-Yahoo, while the search site will be called Yahoo Google.

I know, it sounds odd — but it does fit. The Yahoo home page would replace the “Web” tab with Google — so people there would “Google” what they are looking for, in terms of general search. Meanwhile, Google itself would serve as a type of “pure” search space for the combined company.

The biggest stumbling block in all this has been over management issues. Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are fiercely protective of the company they’ve built and the ideals they have for it. But in the months following the IPO, they’ve both become largely tired. In an amazing reversal, both are stepping down from executive duty.

From Search Engine Roundtable

I have a source, that I can not reveal, that told me Google and Yahoo! are talking about a merger. This is a real reliable source, but if I tell anyone who it is, I am dead. I made a mention of it at this SEW Thread but didn’t say anything else since then. Now I see Andy Beal heard the same thing, I would guess from the same source as I. He titled his entry Yahoo and Google Consider Merger?

So it was like a week ago that I ordered my iPod mini and it came yesterday. I got the new 6 gigabyte silver with 18 hour battery life. Just holding that thing in your hands, you find out just how cool it is. The design is nice and the software is so easy I bet my grandma would have no problem navigating through “her” songs (if the interface was Russian though). Well I mean, yeah it is great.

This is my first Apple product but I know that Apple is very famous for the quality and design of their products. I guess it is pretty well priced for the things it could do and the design and of course just having the Apple and iPod logo on that thing. My favorite things about the iPod have to be the Music Quiz game (it rocks) and the synching of your iPod and iTunes library.

It’s too bad that it didn’t come with the wall plug, I have to charge it through my PC’s USB port. I had a few problems yesterday. I have two PCs and I found out yesterday that the computer I am using right now actually doesn’t have USB 2.0. I was shocked. So I checked my other PC, which was built at home and was newer and surely enough it had USB 2.0. Wasted an hour going through the iPod lounge forums with no answer. I tried everything there but none of it worked and then I realised the whole USB 2.0 dilemma.