These new broadband users will not be tied to Google and could be swung by innovative bundles and deals that Yahoo could, in theory, push aggressively. In practice, it has not done any such thing.

At even 50 million, the likely mobile-Internet users, who aren't tied to a Google legacy on the phone, could have been virgin territory for Yahoo to tackle. It did not. It did go for some early tie-ups for mobile search but again has been overtaken by Google on a host of mobile applications such as mail, maps and location-based social networking.

Yahoo also has some 500 research and development (R&D) engineers in India, and they are unlikely to be affected, except that they won't be doing any search-related R&D. Yahoo has taken the tactical, but strategically flawed, route all through: Outsource core search tech, invest instead in marketing.

It outsourced search to AltaVista, then turned to Inktomi, and then finally, to a start-up called Google, even promoting the latter's brand on its search page. That's where the world learnt of Google. And it's all back full circle. While worrying about what price to sell to Microsoft at, Yahoo appears to have slowed down on innovation and R&D even further. It is back to outsourcing its search. This time, Microsoft Bing will power Yahoo Search.

The charitable view, however, is that search was a lost case for Yahoo anyway. And that this deal will let them stop worrying about the lost case and focus on what they could still recover -- communities, social networking, all the things they they were strong in. Yahoo was once the place to hang out. Today, that's Facebook, MySpace, Twitter.

Supporters and some analysts say that Yahoo can now put all its attention on recovering lost ground in communities and social networking.

I'm not so sure. With neither business savvy nor great tech backing it, Yahoo lost its way. The first mover got left far behind. This will not be an easy catch-up game for Yahoo.

(02-08-2009-Prasanto K. Roy is chief editor at CyberMedia Publications. He can be reached at pkr@cybermedia.co.in and twitter.com/prasanto)