Google is no friend to Yahoo or Microsoft, but Sergey Brin, the search giant's co-founder, said he finds the latter's $44.6 billion bid "unnerving," according to The New York Times.

''The internet has evolved from open standards, having a diversity of companies,'' Brin said. ''And when you start to have companies that control the operating system, control the browsers, they really tie up the top websites and can be used to manipulate stuff in various ways. I think that's unnerving.''

Google, which had tried to offer Yahoo a deal that would help it fend off Microsoft, has repeatedly accused the software giant of antitrust violations. For its part, Microsoft has spat some of the same anticompetitive claims back at Google, as both companies continue to battle for control of the web's lucrative advertising business.