O what a tangled web we weave ...

I hate to blow my own trumpet but I was rather chuffed today to read on the BBC news website of signs that my Microsoft v Yahoo predictions might be ringing true.

It turns out that Yahoo has cleverly done a deal with the enemy - Google - which will see Google being able to place advertising alongside 3% of  Yahoo search results. The market obviously thinks this is a smart move; Yahoo shares have increased by 7%. It's hard to see how this can have any result other than to force Microsoft to increase its offer, which is what Yahoo has been hoping for all along.

Microsoft hasn't been sitting idle, however - turns out that it is in talks with News Corp about making a joint offer for Yahoo, which would combine the MSN, MySpace and Yahoo sites under one umbrella (what would the compeitition authorities have to say about that, I wonder?).

Microsoft will get its prize in the end, I think, but by the looks of things it's going to have to reach deeper into its pockets than it's doing at the moment ...