Microsoft to Yahoo: $44.6 Billion has a nice ring to it

What a way to wake up this morning.

In case you haven't had your cup of coffee yet, here's what you need to know. Microsoft put up a bid to buy Yahoo, for $44.6 billion. The idea, obviously, is to form a stronger competitor to Google.

I guess my question is: If a tree falls in the forest with no one around to hear it... does it make a noise? Combined... Yahoo and Microsoft have about half the search traffic Google does. $44.6 billion seems like an awful lot to drop in order to finally get to half of what your competition is up to.

Look, I know Yahoo is a once proud property, and the company should eventually end up in the Internet Hall of Fame (is there such a thing?), but the company has had a rough go lately, and maybe it's time to face the music.

I have lots of friends who are incredibly loyal to Yahoo (one of whom will be VERY unhappy if he has to lose his yahoo e-mail address... it's his last name @ yahoo.com), but the more I think about this, the more I can't help but notice I don't use a whole lot of Yahoo products, and I also tend to not use a whole lot of Microsoft products. In fact, the only thing that draws me to either a Yahoo or Microsoft product is baseball (mlb.tv will be running on Silverlight this year, and my fantasy baseball league is run through Yahoo fantasy sports).

And even though I use Microsoft and Yahoo for baseball... I still end up going to Google to find more information on specific players. My take... if a tree falls in the woods....