After much speculation, Microsoft and Yahoo have finally reached an agreement to join forces to compete with Google. Microsoft (which tried to buy Yahoo last year) will be able to use the technology it developed for its own Bing search engine to service Yahoo's massive audience, which is second only to Google. Microsoft chief exec Steve Ballmer said this will give Bing "the scale necessary to more effectively compete, attracting more users and advertisers, which in turn will lead to more relevant ads and search results." [NYT]