Google execs hope for long-term ad deal with Yahoo

The hopes for another bid have helped cushion the blow to Yahoo's stock since Microsoft walked away. Yahoo shares rose 58 cents to finish Thursday at $26.22 -8.5 percent below their price when Microsoft made its last bid.

A partnership between Google and Yahoo almost certainly would face intense antitrust scrutiny because the two companies together control more than 80 percent of the U.S. market for online search advertising. The U.S. Justice Department has already made inquiries about the two-week test they conducted.

"If there were a deal (with Yahoo), we would anticipate structuring the deal to address the antitrust concerns that have been widely discussed," Schmidt said.

Although Schmidt wouldn't specify how Google might address the antitrust issues, analysts have speculated that it could be done by running the partnership as an auction-style system that would allow other rivals, including Microsoft, to show ads on Yahoo.

Depending on the breadth of the partnership, Google's ad system could nearly double 2009 profit, UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter estimated in a research report released Thursday.