I was excited last week when I heard about the potential merger between Yahoo and Microsoft. From a strictly search point of view it seemed that the merger could potentially offer a real alternative to Google. Now it seems that Yahoo’s advisers are telling them to go back to AOL. Search Engine Watch has a good update on the topic.

I think Google is a great search engine and we have some very successful clients thanks to Google paid and organic traffic. However, I do not believe that it is a good thing for consumers to only have one credible option. The strength of Microsoft’s Adcenter and Yahoo’s organic would have created a real alternative to Google. Sadly, its not about the consumers but the Wall Street bankers and price of stocks. Let’s hope Yahoo does something before they go out of business and we only end up with one player. Who uses AOL for search?