Almost two years ago, just as Web 2.0 was heating up, BoomTown did a video interview with Slide founder and CEO Max Levchin.

Soon after, the popular maker of widgets and other social networking applications grabbed a big pile of cash from new investors, which put the value of the company at $550 million.

But that was before the recession hit, as well as a generally more sober outlook for a lot of high-flying Silicon Valley darlings like Slide, which have had to wise up a little and get down to business.

So, it was time for another chat with Levchin to find out what’s what.

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Unless there is some major glitch, there might finally be a search and online advertising deal struck between Yahoo and Microsoft at long last.

Top executives at Microsoft–including SVP of the Online Audience Business Group Yusuf Mehdi, search head Satya Nadella and top digital exec Qi Lu–have all flown down to Silicon Valley from their Redmond, Wash., HQ today to iron out the remaining issues.

If all goes well, the deal could be announced within the next week, sources said.

Said one person close to the situation, “It is down to the short strokes, for sure, it is just a question if we can finally close this.”

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BoomTown is at the lovely Santa Clara Marriott in Silicon Valley at the 2009 Yahoo annual meeting, liveblogging the event, which should be spectacularly dull.

Here is a rundown of what went on.

10:05 am: The meeting kicks off with a little video presentation with various and sundry television talking heads saying “Yahoo” in quick succession.

Actually, this was the year during which all of those hype-magnets repeated “Twitter” so many times that it has began to make my ears bleed.

But I like the spirit of trying to make Yahoo seem relevant and innovative again.

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Later this afternoon, BoomTown will be front and center–well, I will probably get seated on the far side and way back–for a speech to be delivered by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at Stanford University’s Memorial Auditorium on innovation and entrepreneurship, aimed at students there who are looking for some advice from tech’s big dogs.

Ballmer is, of course, all that, with a blustery bark and an occasional bite.

Of course, he’s probably channeling a more charming demeanor in another meeting sources say he plans to have with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on this visit to Silicon Valley.

The second since Bartz took over Yahoo in January, it’s about whether or not the pair should make nice after a long period of useless acrimony, and strike a significant search and advertising partnership.

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Recently, BoomTown reported that talks between Microsoft and Yahoo had gotten “hot and heavy.”

That mood seems to be continuing, as many sources close to the situation on both sides said that the pair are coming ever closer to a search and advertising partnership deal.

“It’s meaningful,” said one source. “The fact that there is even progress and engagement, after so many failed attempts between us, says a lot.”

Indeed, there seems to be a lot of engagement between the two sides of late, and some sources think a deal could even be struck within the next few weeks.

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Microsoft is searching for a major executive to run its world-wide online sales, said several sources close to the situation, even as talks with Yahoo about a deal to partner in its search and display advertising businesses continue.

“They need to find a way to make money in display,” said one source close to the situation. “Or, I guess, find a way to not lose quite so much.”

The software giant has been trying to build its online business for many years now, spending a lot of money and not getting very much traction.

Meanwhile, the talks Microsoft has been having with Yahoo about outsourcing its online display sales to the Internet giant, among other scenarios, continue.

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A major Yahoo investor yesterday told me that he liked what he saw so far from new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, but he was wary.

“I like the sizzle,” he said, referring to Bartz’s decisive take-no-prisoners style. “But I am still waiting to see if steak is there too.”

Well, Bartz sizzled at its first-quarter earnings conference call today, tossing off some ribald words as she also handed over some tough news to chew on, announcing Yahoo’s much-expected weak first-quarter results. The company also said it would cut five percent of its staff of 13,600, which is close to 700 employees.

BoomTown liveblogged the call with Bartz, who noted about Yahoo: “The most important takeaway was the importance of having a ‘Wow!’ experience.”

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Yahoo shares leapt on the news, broken in this column Friday and confirmed by others later, that its CEO, Carol Bartz, was in discussions with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer about a possible commercial advertising and search partnership.

Yahoo’s stock rose 7.05 percent, or 95 cents a share, to close at $14.42.

In honor of that, Yahoos today must be going to the Internet giant’s homepage and clicking on its famed exclamation point, which causes the page to, well, sound off with a hillbilly Yahoooooooooo!

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Former top Yahoo advertising exec David Karnstedt, who has been parked at a Silicon Valley venture firm since he left the company, has been named president and CEO of Efficient Frontier.

Interestingly, another former Yahoo exec, Ellen Siminoff, has also been CEO at the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based search engine marketing firm. She is now chairman.

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Yesterday, Yahoo celebrated the fifth anniversary of the launch of its own search engine with some good news about its market share and by jazzing up its paid listings today with a plan to include pictures and video in the online ads.

Will the “rich” ad search product work better, a kind of digital little engine that could?

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Last week–in a clear sign that BoomTown has spent way too much face time in front of the idiot box–I compared the endless bickering back-and-forth between Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to the annoying push-me-pull-you antics of Ross and Rachel on the television show, “Friends.”

But the continuing discussions–oh, yes, there have been more this week–between Yahoo and AOL execs over the merger of their struggling online companies have their own TV comparison: The never-ending roundelay on “The View.”

In other words: Blah, blah, blah. Chitter-chatter. Pointless arguing. Chin-scratching. More blah, blah. More chatter. Blah.

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The one truly interesting factoid in The Wall Street Journal’s piece about the efficacy (or lack thereof) of Facebook’s engagement ads today was one about its results in the graphical ad business versus rival MySpace.

As it turns out, the audience-lagging MySpace smokes Facebook when it comes to selling ads.

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Is it just me or does it feel like the whole odd public back-and-forth between Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is beginning to mimic the endless loop of the deeply annoying relationship between Ross Geller and Rachel Green on the long-running NBC television hit, “Friends”?

At least in their star-crossed hijinks, Ross and Rachel smooched from time to time in between the juvenile bickering and push-me-pull-you antics.

But with Yang and Ballmer, it has been only juvenile bickering and push-me-pull-you antics 24/7, which is why BoomTown wishes they would just get a room.

A conference room to negotiate in, of course! (Get your minds out of the gutter!)

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Next week in Los Angeles, Microsoft will kick off its Professional Developers Conference, a place the software giant likes to unveil all kind of news in a big launchtastic flourish.

For all the noise, it’s worth paying attention, because Monday’s outlook will be cloudy, as in cloud computing.

The day will include a speech from Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie, and others on, among other topics, its cloud infrastructure service initiatives–designed to match aggressive efforts from Amazon in the space.

But who knows what else is up Microsoft’s sleeve?

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Silicon Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget sounds an important horn again, namely, outlining in graphically ugly detail why graphical advertising-based businesses online are in big trouble.

In his post, Blodget shows some convincing graphs about past performance trends, including the years after the first bubble burst, from 2000 to 2002, which could augur what is to come for the display business.

And it ain’t pretty.

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