Google has a Web page up about today’s acquisition of AdMob for $750 million in stock, which includes this lovely image of the differences between what the Silicon Valley companies do in the mobile advertising space.

Here’s the quick translation: The Web search behemoth has been slower than molasses in the space, sticking with boring blue links of death, especially compared to the innovative and nimbler start-up, which is rocking the pretty ads.

So, we ate it.

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Yahoo reported its third-quarter earnings earlier today, a pretty good performance in which it soundly beat Wall Street expectations with a stronger net income than expected.

While advertising revenue was down at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, also as expected, cost-cutting by CEO Carol Bartz and the sale of its stake in China’s Alibaba seem to have more than made up for it.

Here are Yahoo’s financial presentations, full of more numbers than you will ever want to crunch.

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Uh-oh, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was expected to appear on the Internet giant’s third-quarter earnings call, but she apparently “came down with something,” according to CFO Tim Morse.

BoomTown is sending over chicken soup right now, but let’s hope she gets her vaccinations tout de suite!

Thus, no sassy quotes or cursing, but a very earnest Morse, who sounded like he was once a Boy Scout.

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Yahoo bested Wall Street expectations today, announcing stronger net income for its third quarter, despite an also expected decline in revenue.

In addition, Yahoo’s expectations for the fourth quarter are more positive than expected by investors.

But, there were some issues to worry about: Search advertising revenue was off 19 percent and display was off eight percent at “Owned and Operated” sites on Yahoo.

So, while investors can finally relax, how Yahoo can grow going forward is sure to be their next focus.

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It’s not likely the announcement of Yahoo’s third-quarter earnings later today will be quite as exciting as its Open Hack Day in Taiwan this past weekend, but BoomTown will try to make those numbers and the conference call afterward with CEO Carol Bartz as entertaining as possible.

Bartz is certain to be so, especially if she lobs some good quotes, as she did in a recent interview about her management style: “I have the puppy theory. When the puppy pees on the carpet, you say something right then because you don’t say six months later, ‘Remember that day, January 12th, when you peed on the carpet?’ That doesn’t make any sense.”

How much does BoomTown pray for more zingers like that? Muchly!

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Yahoo is set to unveil a major marketing campaign to reset advertiser and consumer perception of the long-troubled company during Advertising Week in New York, which starts a week from tomorrow.

According to numerous sources BoomTown has spoken to about the campaign, Yahoo is–at least with advertisers–going to focus on stressing the size and scale of the Internet giant. With consumers, the Internet giant will push the idea of being a key hub on the Web.

The details of the plan will be made public Tuesday, Sept. 22, at a press conference with senior Yahoo execs, including CEO Carol Bartz.

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Apparently, not everyone leaves Yahoo to join Microsoft.

On Friday, sources said, it was announced internally at Microsoft that Karl Siebrecht, the former president of Atlas at aQuantive, is joining AdReady at the end of the month as president and COO.

AdReady, based in Seattle, bills itself as an “advertising technology company focused on making online display advertising accessible and effective for advertisers of all sizes.”

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One of Yahoo’s highest-ranking premium advertising sales execs–David Dickman, VP of West Coast sales–is leaving the company, people familiar with the situation said.

Sources said Dickman, who will leave Yahoo at the end of the month after three years at the company, is reportedly going to Warner Bros. to work in digital sales.

This comes after another ad sales exec, Todd Taplin, who ran sales in New England and Canada, left last week.

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After a while–in a BoomTown mangling of the old cliché–if you are a nail, everything begins to look like a hammer.

So, it is probably inevitable that the next thing for much-beleaguered AOL staffers to start rumbling about is 2,000 people getting laid off next week.

After all, the Time Warner unit has a long history of whacking employees. So, it is easier to assume things will not be different under the regime of the latest CEO, Tim Armstrong.

Except it’s not actually true that such massive cuts are in the offing, since–as many sources I spoke to said–Armstrong is in the early part of figuring out what to do about the cost structure of AOL, after laying out a company strategy and rejiggering management.

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BoomTown was so glad we had this time together with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, just to have a laugh or sing a song about a major search and advertising deal.

I liveblogged the conference call, which I updated as it happened.

Did Ballmer scream and jump up and down? Did Carol say something naughty?

Read on!

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As BoomTown reported earlier today, Yahoo and Microsoft have struck a search and online advertising partnership that sources said will be announced tomorrow.

But it is eminently instructive to look at the deal that Microsoft had offered Yahoo almost exactly a year ago, which was rejected by Yahoo in favor of a competing bid by Google.

The Yahoogle deal, of course, failed, after regulators looked askance at a partnership of the No. 1 and No. 2 search players.

The new deal between Yahoo and Microsoft, according to sources, certainly seems a lot smaller than the one offered last June, although there might be a surprise yet to come.

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Multiple sources close to the situation said that the online search and advertising deal between Microsoft and Yahoo has been struck and will be announced within the next 24 hours.

While it is not clear if the actual papers have been inked or approved by the boards of the two companies, sources said it was a formality and that negotiations are complete on a deal that is less sweeping than originally conceived.

In any case, making any partnership is likely to be the cause of much relief at both companies, since they have been trying–without success–to join together to mount a better offense in the search sector against the dominant Google.

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Things are as tight as a tick over at Yahoo and Microsoft about the deal the pair have been discussing over the last months–as execs shuttle back and forth and forth and back and their boards deliberate on what will surely be one of the most important decisions for either company for the near-term future in the digital space.

As various reports debate the terms of the deal, it is critically important to remember that, done badly or with too much haste, this massive and extremely complex deal is one with even greater potential to tank.

“It could be game-changing or it could be one the biggest bombs ever,” said one exec close to the situation. “So, obviously, everyone is treating this very delicately.”

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How low can Microsoft go?

Very low, it seems, in announcing really bad fourth-quarter earnings, missing Wall Street revenue estimates by an astonishing $1 billion.

Talk about a game of extreme limbo.

No surprise–Microsoft shares have been taking a beating in after-hours trading.

BoomTown liveblogged the earnings call.

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If there’s an earnings call at Yahoo, you know BoomTown is going to liveblog it!

Will Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz say something naughty? (Nope!) What is new CFO Tim Morse like? (Nice!) Will they say anything about the talks with Microsoft about a search and online advertising partnership? (No!)

Oh, it might be a corker!

The earnings results for the second quarter certainly were not.

Here’s the conference call, updated as it happened.

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