The experiment is over, the regulators have voiced their concerns and Microsoft is about to launch a hostile takeover bid for Yahoo. But none of that has stopped Jerry Yang from reaching out across Silicon Valley to rival Google to see if the search giant can't help monetize Yahoo's search traffic on a permanent basis.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, both companies are said to be talking seriously about letting Google sell ads against Yahoo's search traffic. Such a move is expected to help increase Yahoo's annual cash flow by more than $1 billion and give both companies control of about 83 percent of U.S. search traffic.

While specifics about how such an ad pact would work are still unclear, Google and Yahoo have both said that they're keeping U.S. regulators abreast of their negotiations. According to Google, the pact would allow for a real-time auction system whereby Yahoo, Google or any other company could compete to serve the most lucrative ad in a dynamic environment. That means even Microsoft, which has been the odd man out as it tries to buy its way into the advertising business, also could benefit from Google's potential Yahoo pact. But so far, Microsoft doesn't seem to be eager to play along. The company blasted the Yahoo/Google experiment, calling it anticompetitive.