Yahoo says it's cooperating with DOJ in Google antitrust concern

Whether US federal officials have serious concerns over the Yahoo/Google beta test remains unclear this morning, though explanations given to the press last night may actually raise more questions than they answer.

The US Department of Justice has yet to issue a comment on, or confirm, a story that first appeared on Reuters wires late yesterday. Initially, it was reported and widely repeated that the DOJ is investigating Yahoo and Google over a test of integrating AdSense ads on Yahoo search pages.

A recent distribution of the Reuters story does not indicate any such investigation is taking place. However, responses from both Yahoo and Google spokespersons, to both Reuters and BetaNews, may be more enlightening than either company would have intended had the "investigation" story not been disseminated.

"We alerted the DOJ of the test before it launched and provided info about it," Yahoo spokesperson Tracy Schmaler told BetaNews this morning. "Yahoo proactively kept the Department of Justice informed of its intention to conduct this limited test with Google and has provided information to DOJ on the nature of the test."

Schmaler's comments would appear to indicate the cooperation was one-way, with Yahoo volunteering information to the DOJ in case it should ever have concerns.

Google has yet to respond to BetaNews inquiry as of 11:45 am EDT this morning; however, its response to Reuters is actually slightly contradictory to the stance Yahoo has been taking. "We informed the Justice Department before we launched this test and we have been responsive to their questions about it," a Google spokesperson is quoted as having told Reuters yesterday.

It's not the spirit of cooperation that's contradictory. Up until now, Google has been completely silent on the matter, letting analysts come to the conclusion that it could very well be a passive partner on the deal. But now the Google spokesperson has injected the phrase, "we launched this test," into the discussion, indicating that it was not only an active partner but a co-engineer of the AdSense test, which is a far deeper relationship than AdSense integration would actually require.

The Google spokesperson also mentions "their questions about it," which presumes the DOJ actually had questions. An inquiry is far less than an investigation, though if the DOJ had questions, then the cooperation was certainly two-way, not one-way as Yahoo suggested.

The current version of the Reuters story this morning now omits any mention of a possible telephone conversation between Yahoo and Google executives prior to the commencement of the test project.