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Microsoft's unwanted courtship of Yahoo is spinning into a dramatic soap opera that analysts say is playing into the hands of Internet search king Google.

While the US software giant says Google's dominance online is the reason it is eager to buy Yahoo, the California firm's efforts to stave off Microsoft leave Google free to concentrate on strengthening its grip on the market.

"Our big take-away now is that as the situation gets more muddled with more participants and more uncertainty, it seems to solidify Google's standing in the industry," Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown told AFP.

A series of Yahoo maneuvers aimed at rebuffing Microsoft were announced or leaked this week, while the software giant may also be upping its game.

On Thursday a report surfaced that Microsoft is exploring an alliance with News Corporation owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Terms of a possible deal include News Corp. contributing cash to help Microsoft buy Yahoo, and then adding its popular social networking website MySpace to the resulting Internet entity.

Such an alliance would be an abrupt change of sides for News Corp., which was among possible "white knights" that Yahoo reached out to for salvation after Microsoft came on strong with a 44.6-billion-dollar offer February 1.

News Corp. also has a long-term deal with Google to host online advertising at MySpace.

Yahoo, meanwhile, is apparently seeking help from longtime rival Google, whose dominance in Internet advertising is among the reasons Yahoo's share of the market have been eroding.

Yahoo announced Wednesday it will launch a limited, two-week test of Google's AdSense for Search service, which essentially means it will be checking how much better Google is at generating cash from online advertising.

Analysts agree that a significant alliance between Google and Yahoo would be squashed by US regulators because the companies combined would control some 90 percent of the online search ad market.

"The company that would clearly want to come to the rescue is Google but they know the regulators would just go nuclear if they did that," Gartner analyst Van Baker said.

Unofficial word has spread that Yahoo is also nearing a deal with Time Warner's America Online to combine the two struggling companies' Internet operations and thwart Microsoft's takeover effort.

Time Warner would reportedly merge AOL into Yahoo and pay for a 20 percent ownership of the combined company.

Yahoo would reportedly use the cash to buy back shares from some of the very stockholders Microsoft is threatening to woo in an effort to have Yahoo's board of directors ousted and replaced with people amenable to the takeover.

Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle agrees that Google benefits while its two closest rivals duel but says that Google might have reason to worry.

Microsoft has a 1.6 percent stake in fast-growing social networking website Facebook. A tie-up with MySpace, while a bit awkward, would give Microsoft footholds in two top social networking properties.

If Yahoo makes an alliance with AOL and then is bought by Microsoft, the combined resources span a formidable swath of hot websites.

"Microsoft and Yahoo might not be a threat to Google, but you throw Murdoch in the mix and that is a credible threat," Enderle said. "The chance Microsoft could pull it off could be what keeps Google up at night. It's scary."

Microsoft is betting that by combining with Yahoo, it can gain ground on Google.

"I think Yahoo genuinely doesn't want to merge with Microsoft," Baker said.

"They think it will be bad for the employees and bad for the industry, and I don't disagree with that."

Yahoo on Monday rejected a three-week deadline from Microsoft to accept the takeover but said it is open to a sweetened bid from the software giant or another bidder.

"I think this is inevitable," Baker said of a Microsoft takeover of Yahoo.

"I'm just very concerned Microsoft will screw it up and we will end up with Google controlling 90 percent of the ad business anyway and that Yahoo culture is going to evaporate."

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Top 5(L-R): Leah Laviano of Mississippi,Tiffany Andrade of New Jersey,Crystle Stewart, Texas,Lindsey Jo Harrington,Laurn Merola of Pennsylvania

26-year-old entrepreneur from Texas was named Miss USA on Friday, besting 50 other beauty queens for the coveted crown.

Crystle Stewart, of Missouri City, Texas, runs a party-planning and motivational speaking company, as well as modeling professionally. She says she wants to dedicate her life to international philanthropy.

She edged out first runner-up Leah Laviano of Mississippi and Tiffany Andrade of New Jersey.

Miss USA 2007 Rachel Smith relinquished the crown -- and the posh New York apartment that comes with it -- in a show aired live by NBC with hosts Donny and Marie Osmond from the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The network co-owns the parent Miss Universe Organization with Donald Trump.

Smith, a former Miss Tennessee USA, said she was headed to Hollywood.

Contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia have been in Las Vegas for nearly three weeks, rehearsing and hyping the 57th annual pageant. After stints in Baltimore and Los Angeles, organizers billed the new venue as a city beloved by the event's international audience.

The pageant tried to showed off its edge, featuring a grinding live rock performance by the band Finger Eleven, music from Rihanna, and contestants in barely there black bikinis and faux-fur coats.

Donny and Marie kept up a steady stream of sibling banter even while swiftly whittling the field.

Donny Osmond told the losers to "put on a poker face" as he sent them home.

"Or use Botox; then it won't move," Marie quipped.

Stewart will compete in the Miss Universe pageant in Vietnam in July. She also becomes a spokeswoman for breast and ovarian cancer awareness and other causes, while traveling to promote the organization.

Miss USA contestants are scored in three categories: swimsuit, evening gown and interview. Miss Alaska USA, Courtney Erin Carroll, was chosen "Miss Photogenic USA" based on voting at the organization's Web site. The other contestants named Miss Ohio USA, Monica Day, "Miss Congeniality." Unlike the rival Miss America, Miss USA contestants are not asked to perform a talent.

Smith's year on the throne has been marked by fewer racy headlines than her 2006 predecessor, Tara Conner. Conner's underage drinking landed her in rehab and sparked a media circus documenting her fall from grace.

Smith's low point was a fall onstage during the evening gown competition of the Miss Universe pageant in Mexico City. She was booed by the crowd and Miss Japan won the title.

A bigger blunder this year belonged to Miss California USA organizers. The judges crowned the wrong queen in their November contest and reversed it days later, saying Raquel Beezley, of Barstow, was the victim of a vote tabulation error. Dethroned Miss Los Angeles, Christina Silva, a Hispanic woman, has filed a lawsuit alleging racial bias.

The panel of judges for Friday's pageant included Heather Milles, model and former wife of Paul McCartney; comedian Rob Schneider; Olympic gold-medal swimmer Amanda Beard; and Christian Siriano, winner of Bravo's fashion reality series, "Project Runway."

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