Google and Yahoo said Friday that they both decided to delay the start of their search advertising partnership to give the Justice Department more time to investigate any eventual antitrust implications. An anonymous source said that the additional delay will be less than a month.

The deal calls for Google, which handles almost two-thirds of U.S. Internet searches, sought to sell ads alongside some query results on Yahoo's site, splitting the revenue.

We have had discussions with regulators and look forward to responding to their questions about this agreement,” Yahoo said.
Moreover, critics have said the deal will hurt competition and lead to higher prices, since Google and Yahoo hold the top two market-share positions in search. "Neither Google nor Yahoo set ad prices," wrote Tim Armstrong, president of advertising and commerce for Google in North America, in a recent blog post.

The deal announced in June to share advertising was mostly seen as an effort to help fend off Microsoft's efforts to acquire Yahoo, by bringing Yahoo an additional $800 million in annual revenues.

An antitrust lawyer, who regularly brings mergers to the Justice Department, said that the delay was probably not a good sign for Google and Yahoo.

Google unveiled a Web site late last month that provides information on the arrangement and links to stories favorable news stories about the link-up. Google and Yahoo however deny that their deal with anti-competitive and insist that they will continue to compete with each other for online ad sales.