According to NBC Universal – one of America’s multi-national internet corporations, Yahoo!, is looking to connect with Facebook on many levels. Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer, a former Googler, wants to create a stronger relationship with Facebook – one of its main focuses being mobile applications.

Within the past year, Yahoo has lost market share [as depicted in the image above] and will continue to drop another 8 percent this year. Meanwhile, Google will grow 3 percent and Facebook will move up 1 percent for market share. Since Yahoo has experienced such a significant loss, Mayer realizes that by creating a partnership with someone will essentially reduce that number.

As mentioned before, Mayer is a former Googler; a long-time executive and key spokesperson for Google up until July 16th of last year, when she was appointed President and CEO of Yahoo.

NBC Bay Area Technology Writer, Barbara Hernandez, states that Mayer plans to partner with Facebook, Google, and Apple to benefit from their social media expertise. If Mayer were to partner with one of these well-established companies, it would be less expensive for Yahoo [in terms of creating new products] and to Mayer it makes financial sense.

Although, it seems that Google is out of the picture given the fact that Mayer left the company to work for another search engine-driven company; therefore, it is down to Facebook and Apple. Which will take Yahoo under its profitable wing? And what does this mean for Yahoo users? WIRED Business posted yesterday that Mayer is, on behalf of Yahoo, narrowing her focus on Facebook and wanting to delve into social networking. With or without a partnership, it’ll be interesting to see what Yahoo conjures up.

And as far as marketers and brands are concerned – Yahoo cannot be ignored, but should represent a small portion of a brand’s Internet and optimization efforts. Of course, we will keep you updated!