The net is abuzz with rumors of talks between MSN and AOL. Breathy reports and prognostications abound about what this might portend. Ed Bott was screaming like a banshee this morning (he has since regained his normal composure).

And MicrosoftBlog.com just quoted a Reuters report that an unnamed source "familiar with the matter" said there's nothing definite afoot and no imminent plans to merge the two online powers.

Ed quotes a Wall St. Journal report in an update to his post saying that the talks were actually about the possibility that AOL might switch to the MSN search engine (they currently use Google results).

I personally plan to take a very relaxed wait-and-see attitude towards this one.

Although I bet the early sturm-and-drang raised at least few BP readings over at Google this morning. Then again, with a fresh $4 billion in stock proceeds, they probably were too busy planning their next acquisitions to give it more than a passing thought.