After making strides to revamp their search functions in order to better compete with Google and Bing, Yahoo has gone on public record to describe their current deal with Microsoft as "purely business." It's an effort by the company to show the public that it is not (yet) merely a 'subject' of the Redmond-based software giant's spreading kingdom.

Yahoo plans to "put a new face" on Yahoo Messenger and Mail, while adding even more functions to its search engine.

This doesn't mean that Yahoo will not rely on Microsoft to power their search queries. Yahoo only wishes to clarify that, as one of their senior vice presidents put it, "Yahoo search is NOT a version of Bing."

Still an Independent Search Platform

According to Yahoo, the company is still to be regarded as its own independent search platform in a war against all comers. While Yahoo may collaborate with Microsoft behind the scenes, the fact remains that both Yahoo and Microsoft are natural competitors hoping to attract a large portion of the online populace. (Source: computerworld.com)

So, why does Yahoo wish to reaffirm their status as an independent entity?

Recently studies suggest that Yahoo and Google each went down a fraction of a point within the U.S. search share. Comscore, an Internet research company reported that Microsoft gained 0.5 percent in recent months; in contrast, Google continues to lead with a whopping 64.7, while Yahoo holds a distant second place with 19.3 percent of the remaining search market. (Source: yahoo.com)

It will be interesting to see just how much Bing figures increase in the coming quarter, and if Yahoo's popularity gives way to a search engine whose technology it may increasingly rely upon.