Google quietly stole the storm while Microsoft was busy basking in its past glory. Because whatever method they tried, they surely failed to convince Yahoo Japan.

Yes, the US Yahoo had no qualms while plugging into Microsoft’s Bing search engine to generate search results. But we have lately been wondering exactly how much right does Yahoo have over its Japanese counterpart. And the answer is clearly: not too much.

Yahoo Japan has signed a deal with Google to use its search engines, ignoring Yahoo’s lead and delivering quite a strong blow to Microsoft. Considering that the economy we are talking about is the second-largest on the planet, the new deal is an apparent reason for Microsoft to panic.

In a Google Japan blog post today, Daniel Alegre, Vice President of Google’s Asia Pacific and Japan operations, said, “Yahoo Japan will use Google search results and Google’s technology for supplying the accompanying search ads.” And in such a case, revenue from the search ads will be shared between Yahoo Japan and Google. Yahoo Japan is strongly bidding to strengthen its already superior position in the nation and will also adopt the search-linked advertisement delivery system of Google and feed the data to Google sites.

Apparently, Microsoft was not Yahoo Inc.’s first choice either, but a move resulting after the US government nipped a potential tie-up with Google in the bud. Yahoo Japan gave them the slip, and considering that Yahoo Inc. can claim credit to only about one-third of the investment in Yahoo Japan, there is nothing much they could really do.