Yahoo spotted testing other search providers for its search engine, namely Google

Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO) has confirmed that it is once again testing Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) search as a basis to power its web crawler.

It’s unclear whether Yahoo is kicking the tires on a formal search alliance with Google to replace the one it’s seemingly winding down with Microsoft, or whether this is part of Yahoo’s efforts to reassert its search business under CEO and ex- Google search exec Marissa Mayer.

A representative for Yahoo added that there was nothing more to share at this time. Google handles most search inquiries around the world.

Google approached Yahoo in 2008 to serve ads for the ex-, but the deal didn’t work out back then because the Department of Justice stood against it, saying it could stifle competition and loss of real value to consumers, today it appears that story is changing so soon. The company does acknowledge Google as its biggest rival. In April, the two companies revised their partnership which allowed Bing to be Yahoo’s exclusive search provider.

According to eMarketer projections, Microsoft and Yahoo combined will own 6.5 percent of the $81.59 billion search market globally in 2015. Yahoo appears to be exercising that freedom as some searches are still triggering results from Bing, while others are triggering results from Google. It was first discovered bySEOBook’s Aaron Wall, who alternately saw Yahoo results with Bing ads and ones with Google ads when he used different browsers.

Still, the landscape has changed in the last several years and Yahoo no longer holds as large a slice of the search and online ad space.

Google also confirmed the arrangement.

While the Bing-Yahoo pact won’t be going away, the amended deal paves the way for Google to eat up a potentially significant chunk of Yahoo’s search and ads, if they agree to terms.