After Google and Yahoo announced an advertising partnership in June, letters from consumer groups and advertising associations poured into U.S. government regulators, urging them to support or block the proposed deal.

Mixed in among the complaints from the usual lobbying suspects were letters from several farming groups, including the National organization of Farmer Elected Committees and the National Latino Farmers and Ranchers Trade organization , arguing that since farmers use the Web, they were worried about a Google-Yahoo monopoly.

The farmers may have had another reason. Rudy Arredondo, the chief executive of the Latino farmers group, confirmed that his organization became involved in the issue after talking to lobbyists at the Raben Group. The Raben Group received $30,000 that spring to lobby against the deal — from Google’s rival, Microsoft, which wanted to buy Yahoo.

“Obviously, we can’t cover all the issues, so we rely on our allies to keep us informed,” Arredondo said.

Behind-the-scenes lobbying is nothing new in Washington. But the fight by the proposed Google-Yahoo partnership shows how much Microsoft, once the pinata of Washington regulators, has learned about operating in that town since its regulatory fights during the late 1990s, and how much Google has yet to learn.

The premise of the deal is simple. It would allow Google to sell ads alongside some search results on Yahoo. But considering Google dominates the search advertising market and Yahoo has the second-place slot, Microsoft and several advertisers argue that the partnership could effectively create a monopoly and push up advertising prices.

Google has said that the deal is not exclusive and that the prices are set by auction, so it does not violate antitrust concerns.

A decision from the U.S. Justice division on the deal is expected in the next few days. But Microsoft’s strength in Washington, combined with Google’s missteps there, may have…

[Source] dhiram