When news of a deal between Salesforce.com and Google leaked last month, many thought the two companies had combined forces to defeat a common foe: Microsoft. But an Associated Press report confirming the deal, points to cooperation on a much smaller scale than many had anticipated.

Under the terms of the deal, Salesforce.com will help Google sell ads by unveiling a new version of its service to more than 30,000 small business customers. The service will help those small businesses make greater use of Google's AdWords platform.

Some analysts had speculated that the two companies would somehow merge Google's web-based applications like email and spreadsheets with Salesforce.com's software. But so far, that doesn't appear to be the case.

Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com's founder and CEO, said the deal should encourage smaller businesses to migrate from complicated sales-tracking software installed on their computers, to more streamlined online applications.

"We have a shared vision that the internet is the new computing platform," Benioff said of Salesforce.com and Google.