MSFT and Yahoo announced their deal earlier today. I'm curious what you think-who did better in the deal? Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Let me know what you think.

This morning Yahoo gave up the ghost on search and signed a 10 year deal adopting Microsoft's Bing search platform as its primary search technology. In the agreement, Microsoft will be the leading search provider for all of Yahoo's search properties (over 100 sites) while Yahoo focuses on surviving' err I meant, "allowing Yahoo to focus on what we do best, and that is to be the center of peoples' lives online" (Yahoo CEO, Carol Bartz).

by Claudine Zap and Vera H-C Chan Ever take the ink blot testâ?"or at least see one administered on TV (like in any "Law & Order" episode)? If so, then you know that there are no right or wrong answers on a Rorschach test, but responses do provide insight to the test-taker's state of mind.   And yet, a controversy about the posting of 10 Rorschach ink blots on Wikipedia is rocking the scientific community, according to The New York Times . In addition to the blots themselves,

Two weeks ago we posted about the potential deal between Microsoft and Yahoo ! . Now that the deal is official, the latest search numbers tell us that Google has 70.6% of all U.S. query volume while the combined Bing and Yahoo! Search now comprise 26% of all U.S. searches, leaving only 3.4% for the other 54 engines that we track in search share (1,465 search engines that we track in market share of visits). More data to follow tomorrow.

Google 's ubiquity in search is such that many clients feel that a website that is optimized for Google is good to go. Today's announcement of a search deal between Yahoo and Microsoft ought to put a decisive fork in that thinking. Consider this â?" the combined share of the market that Microsoft 's Bing search engine will have is nearly 30%. Assuming this holds,

It looks like Facebook's made still more progress in terms of dealing with important companies. Following earlier news about 1-800-Flowers.com, it turns out that the social network has become a friend of Orbitz. Matt Holliday reported, "Orbitz has launched a new Facebook Connect integration to help anyone making travel plans through the site share their flight and hotel details with friends and family on Facebook.

Compete is pointing to some interesting data, and suggesting that Hulu's "evil plot to take over the world" might just be working. The popular video site has surpassed NBC, FOX and ABC's websites in traffic for the first time. And that was last month. "The networks traffic declined during the summer rerun season, but Hulu seems relatively unaffected," notes Compete's Seth Madison. Compete also put together another interesting graph based on its search analytics reports.

Americans who watch online video continues to grow at a rapid pace across all demographics, far outpacing the adoption rates of many other Internet activities, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. More than half (62%) of Internet users have watched content on video sharing sites, up from 33 percent in 2006. The majority (89%) of Internet users 18-29 say they watch content on video sharing sites, and 36 percent do so on an average day.

Here at Search Engine Watch, we wanted to reach out to the search community to get their reaction to the long-awaited search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! Not surprisingly, marketers, search engine representives, and agencies had a lot to say on the matter. Below you'll find their initial reactions to this morning's announcement. The deal is good for marketers and advertisers Most agree with Search Engine Watch editor Kevin Newcomb,

With Labor Day weekend fast approaching, perhaps youre thinking about a quick trip to Vegas. Airfares arent too expensive, but the cost of a hotel room may give you second thoughts, especially since the best properties tend to get up booked up during holiday weekends. Fortunately, Bing Travel has created an intelligent tool to help you figure out whether the hotel rate youre being offered is a deal or not. Unlike the Price Predictor ,