Sen. Kohl asks for continued Google, Yahoo monitoring

Yahoo's deal to put some Google Inc ads on its searches may hurt the industry, and warrants monitoring by the Justice Department even if the agency eventually approves the deal, according to Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) of the Senate's antitrust subcommittee. He did not urge that the deal be blocked, saying on Thursday his panel was not privy to "confidential business information supplied by the companies to the department." But he added that "should the amount of advertising outsourced by Yahoo to Google grow significantly, we believe the threat to competition will also increase." He urged the Justice Department to step in "if, over time, you determine that Google is gaining a dominant market position as a result of the Google-Yahoo agreement."