Well, it's official. The Microsoft/Yahoo! deal that wouldn't die isn't dead yet. While Microsoft formally withdrew its buyout offer for Yahoo! a few weeks ago, last night the company issued a statement saying that it still had designs on Yahoo! Whether that means the buyout of just a portion of Yahoo!'s business or some sort of strategic partnership remains unclear.

What is clear is that Yahoo! is listening. The company has issued a statement in response to Microsoft's statement. (It's the 21st century of "have your people talk to my people"). In a nutshell, here's what Yahoo! has to say: Please don't buy our whole company, but we're not opposed to some other sort of a deal, especially one that would get our angry stockholders off our backs.

Translation: We've got to do something to get our stock prices back up, and if you can't offer us something worthwhile, we might have to go ahead and partner with Google instead.

[via Techmeme]

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water (or at least use Flickr without fear that Microsoft would start requiring WGA validation), Microsoft released a statement saying it's not quite done with this whole Yahoo! thing yet. No, the company isn't putting another bid on the table for an outright acquisition of Yahoo!, but Microsoft isn't ruling that out either.

In a nutshell, Microsoft wants to make it clear that the company plans to expand its advertising and service businesses. And to that end, Microsoft has proposed some sort of an arrangement or partnership with Yahoo! Or maybe Microsoft wants to buy some, but not all of the search portal's properties. The statement doesn't really make it clear what Microsoft's after at this point.

A number of Yahoo! shareholders have expressed their disappointment with the way the Microsoft negotiations were handled (and the subsequent drop in stock price). So we could certainly see why Yahoo!'s leadership might be interested in some sort of a deal which could provide value for both companies, and more importantly keep shareholders from demanding Jerry Yang's head on a platter.

It seems Yahoo! recently lost faith in its ability to advertise, and it almost seems desperate to try something very different. In fact, the company seems so desperate in a Web-world increasingly dominated by Google, that it's going to give AdSense a shot. Yes, Yahoo! will host Google ads on its own site.

Though the mini-partnership is cute and we're sure they'd make a fun but powerful couple, don't make any assumptions about their intentions yet. As much as Google would like to get in that pair of pants, Yahoo will only support AdSense in up to 3% of all search results for now. If AdSense does what it promises to do -- make more money than Yahoo's advertising services -- the two companies should enter into a more committed relationship.

It feels like Yahoo's just giving up, but you can't blame 'em. Google's an innovative monster, and how do you compete with that? I guess if you can't beat 'em, catch a ride on their coattails.

Google has announced a partnership with the Rwandan Ministry of Infrastructure, and the Kenya Education Network that will result in the use of Google Apps in Rwanda's educational institutions and government ministries, as well as in Kenya's universities. Both of these African countries will now have access to free communication tools that include email, shared calendars, instant messaging and word processing under
their institutions current domain names.

There are two main packages of the Google Apps that are being provided free of charge. With 20,000 users in Rwanda, The National University of Rwanda, the Kigali Institute for Education and the Kigali Institute for Science and Technology will have Google Apps Education Edition. The countries government ministries using Google Apps Standard Edition. 50,000 students at the University of Nairobi will be the first ones offered the Google Apps for Education in Kenya, with 150,000 additional students signing on at a later date.

Google has just issued a press release stating that this initiative will be helping Google to further organize the world's information, and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google's philanthropic Freudian slip is showing, don'tcha think? Gates can run around throwing money at the worlds problems all he wants, but I bet this secures Google a permanent spot in the hearts of many a socially conscious geek.

Google and Intuit have been rumored to be entering into a partnership. The news will supposedly be dropped at 1:15pm Pacific time. Michael Arrington dropped some news today that Google could be integrating into QuickBooks 2007. This would supposedly allow small business users to add listings of their businesses to Google Maps, and create and manage AdWords campaigns, as well as post listings on Google Base.

The conference is scheduled for 1:15pm Pacific, with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Intuit President and CEO Steve Bennett speaking on the partnership.

Stay tuned as the news unfolds.

UPDATE: Google has in fact announced a strategic partnership with Intuit, which is designed to help small business owners promote themselves online. The new partnership will see Google's services built into most Quickbooks 2007 products.

Small business owners will have the option to list their businesses on Google Maps, create and manage Google AdWords campaigns, and post their products for sale on Google Base. The Google integrated Quickbooks 2007 will be in stores this fall. No word on the 2007 pricing as of yet.

Partnering Google products with Intuits small business products is going to make some small businesses very happy at realizing the potential that Google's products have for the bottom line.

BBC News is reporting that five computer security firms, ICSA Labs, McAfee, Symantec, Thompson Cyber Security Labs, and Trend Micro, are joining forces to combat spyware. The partnership, which has yet to be given a snappy name, will be collaborating to create a common naming system for spyware and cooperating to create tools to stop spyware. The companies, which say the amount of spyware in circulation increases by 50-100% every year, hope to "remove some of the current confusion caused by anti-spyware firms managing their own labelling and removal method."