Or it signals that Google limits bids to what's profitable, and Yahoo outbid them. Which would suggest it does care, but only up to a limit. I don't know offha

Or it signals that Google limits bids to what's profitable, and Yahoo outbid them. Which would suggest it does care, but only up to a limit. I don't know offhand how the contracts work, if there's a minimum traffic sent clause, or any other direct tie in to user behavior, or if this is a lump sum auction "give us a billion dollars and we'll make you default for a year" scenario. Either way, I expect Google would scale the amount they pay based on traffic sent. Happy to read details from anyone who has them =) But my question is: why did Yahoo outbid them? Yahoo doesn't need a fig leaf at all.