Hot off the press comes news that Yahoo and eBay are forming a partnership, designed to help both parties take on Google and Microsoft.

Text below is from the press release…

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Search and Advertising:

Yahoo! will become the exclusive third-party provider of all graphical advertisements throughout the eBay.com site, and sponsored search for complementary products on some eBay.com search results pages in the U.S.

Yahoo! already provides a broad and deep array of essential services to an extremely engaged audience around the world. Through this partnership, Yahoo! can expand upon these strengths with the addition of eBay.com’s high quality online inventory, offering advertising clients an optimal marketing experience.

JupiterResearch has released some interesting data showing how people book vacations online.

Among the info, details that despite the hype, only 4% of online travelers say they use a travel search engine to plan or purchase a trip.

AP reports Google has agreed to shut down a number of Orkut communities in Brazil. Why? As we reported previously, Orkut is wildly popular with gangsters and thugs.

In recent years, news reports have linked drug dealing operations and organized fights between soccer fans to Orkut communities. One community allegedly advocated killing the president and planting a bomb in Congress and explained those thing might be done.

Six communities are being shuttered in total and it’s still unclear if Google will hand over user data.

CNET has cryptic details of AOL’s plans to offer an enhanced search engine service for users with broadband.

Time Warner’s AOL Internet unit wants to “evolve the entire experience (and) start from ground zero with what would be a good broadband experience that takes Google (technology) and adds on top of that,” he said. “In search, I do think there will be turns of the wheel.”

Any guesses?

While many companies are looking to China as the next growth market for online marketing, Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, predicts India will be the country to watch, according to The Times of India.

I tend to agree, lots of recent data suggests that India is growing at a fantastic rate with many big companies planting a footprint there.

If you’ve not already subscribed to the newly launched Search Marketing Standard magazine, you should sign-up immediately.

There’s a lot of great search marketing advice already available online, and much of it requires either a paid subscription or the purchase of a report. SMS is only $10 per year, and for that money, you won’t find a better resource for keeping up to date on industry trends and news.

I became a Plaxo fan back last fall when starting FI. I’ve really found it beneficial and like the free email signature they provide.

Today comes news that the company will be offering an interesting phone service to users.

Plaxo’s new Click to Call feature lets users make phone calls by clicking on a phone number in their Plaxo address book. A screen pops up asking the caller to confirm the numbers, and when that screen is clicked, the phone will ring. When the caller picks up, the system automatically initiates the call to the other person.

The calling function, available through a partnership with VoIP provider Jajah, does not require either party to have headphones, microphones or a high-quality broadband connection or extra VoIP software, said Plaxo Chief Executive Ben Golub.