In their efforts to compete with Google, Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for $44.6 Billion, merging the 2nd and 3rd ranking search engines into one larger competitor that would still have less market share than Google.

The question is, "For whom would this be a good thing?"

Consumers wouldn't benefit. Less competition means less innovation and less focus on the consumer, but this isn't about the consumer, is it?

I don't see Microsoft benefiting from this, either. People don't prefer Google because it's big---they prefer it because it's a simple interface and decent results, not to mention all kinds of cool extras like maps and images. Even taking the best of Microsoft's Live Search and Yahoo's search engine will not bring anything new to the table, and as long as Microsoft continues to simply follow Google's lead, they'll always be second.

Both Microsoft and Yahoo offer some great services, but to compete with Google, they need to look more at a paradigm shift in the content they provide beyond just being default browser search engines. Instead of, "How can we get bigger?" they need to ask, "How can we better serve the consumer?"

And isn't it strange to think of Microsoft as the "little guy"?