Microsoft: Yahoo, Google partnership plan would 'eliminate' search competition in Japan

Yahoo's plan to partner with Google in Japan will "eliminate" search competition in the country, Microsoft's Dave Heiner, vice president and deputy general counsel, charged in a blog post Tuesday.

"Today Google accounts for about 51 percent of paid search advertising in Japan. Yahoo Japan accounts for 47 percent. Their combined share of natural search results is almost as high," he said.

Heiner raised concerns about potential anticompetitive repercussions of the deal. He pointed to how Google ranks its search listings.

Heiner warned that "if Google is permitted to proceed with its plan … Google alone would decide what consumers in Japan will find, or not find, on the Web."

He also raised the specter of user privacy.

He continued, "And Google will obtain massive amounts of data regarding the search history and websites visited by every consumer, business and government agency that conducts web searches."

He said the deal in Japan would be "worse" than a partnership between Yahoo and Google in the United States that the Justice Department rejected in 2008 citing antitrust laws.

He also questioned the credibility of Google's statements about its Japan deal.

"Google reports that it already received approval from the Japanese Federal Trade Commission for the deal, even before it was announced and before the JFTC reached out to advertisers, publishers and competitors to learn about the likely competitive effects of the deal," he said. "It will be interesting to see over the next few weeks if that is really accurate."

Yahoo Japan announced Tuesday it will drop its search service and use Google's technology to deliver search results on Yahoo's Japan website. Microsoft and Yahoo have a similar partnership in the U.S., approved by regulators in February.