Its kinda sad, really"like watching your extremely inept friend, er, acquaintance making a pass at someone whos obviously not interested. Now, we all have different opinions over whether Yahoo should be interested, but right now it looks like theyre not. Really, really not. Which makes Microsoft COO Kevin Turner sound every bit as desperate and pitiable as said acquaintance when he tells the Times Online:

Weve certainly made -Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz- aware and the Yahoo! board aware that if they are ever interested in an opportunity to partner with them on search, wed like to sit down and at least have the conversation.

Ah yes, the If youre interested, Im interested, talk. Joy.

In all, though, this kind of backhanded flirting is probably not such a good idea right now. Microsoft is internally testing Kumo, the code name for its next search interface update. Is it really a good time to be out publicly admitting that Hey, wed be more than happy to throw in the towel and get behind another brand (because, please, Microsoft, PLEASE dont tell me youd toss out the strong Yahoo brand for the very muddy Microsoft/MSN/Live/Kumo? brand!), or Hey, our crawlers and index arent so hot, so wed like yours?

But you know what? I protest too much. One plus of this ongoing saga: I always have something to get snarky about.

How do you want it all to end? (Or do you just want it to all end!?)

Included links: Microsoft Pounces on Yahoo, Yahoo Rejects Microsoft

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