It’s like we’re watching a scene from that dumb reality show, “The Bachelor,” and in this case the bachelor is Yahoo.

Who will walk down the aisle with Yahoo? Microsoft? Google? Time Warner’s AOL? Even News Corp. is getting into the act, considering a plan to team up with Microsoft in its bid for Yahoo.

The Bachelor, aka Yahoo, has a lot of hot, crazy babes to choose from. If you’re a small business that wants to place ads on search engines to get people to click over to your Web site, you just may want to tune in.

Each potential merger scenario could affect the future of your Internet ad dollars.

Most analysts believe Microsoft will prevail in its bid for Yahoo, and while that may seem on the surface to mean higher prices for ads because there will be less competition, think again.

“Heaven would be if Microsoft purchased Yahoo, kept Yahoo intact under the Yahoo brand, and used Yahoo search and Yahoo Search Marketing to power Microsoft Live,” she says.

MSNBC YourBiz