gregbo - 8:59 pm on Feb 2, 2009 (gmt 0)

Could of course be a cynical way to get more press - seen this banded about on all major press ....

Unlikely. G has far more effective and less risky ways of getting press. They are all too aware that the level of competition in search, primarily in the quality of SERPS, is such that they don't want to give their users reasons to go searching somewhere else. It has been noted by numerous people twittering, journaling, blogging, and otherwise commenting on this incident that Y! did not suffer any service interruption during that time. Moreover, people realized that Y!'s results were just as good as G's.