Collapse Yahoo talks leaves advertisers with less leverage

U.S. online advertising revenues exceeded $21 billion for the first time in 2007, and Web sites large and small have been fiercely going after a share as the Internet is poised to take even more dollars away from print and broadcast.

Despite the fears of Google's dominance, there's some advantage to keeping Microsoft and Yahoo separate: Preserving competition between them in display advertising could help encourage innovation and keep prices low.

"It keeps the market place competitive," said Daniel Taylor, senior analyst at Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm. "There isn't the same kind of market dominance in display as there is in search."

There's plenty of disruption and change going on already in the online advertising world without the threat of a new colossus coming on the scene that would again change everything, Taylor said.

"We have this pressure lifted off of us," Taylor said. "We can go back to addressing our growing pains rather than worrying about the price that Microsoft would pay for Yahoo."