“Microsoft and Yahoo!’s share of online paid search advertising queries in Australia was limited,” the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission said in its notice of approval. “In combining search engine platforms, Microsoft and Yahoo! may have been able to achieve the necessary scale to provide effective and sustainable competition to Google, which had a very large share of online paid search advertising queries.”

Great news for the two companies, whose plan to consolidate two of the search market’s three largest players is currently under review by antitrust regulators at the U.S. Justice Department. Should it be approved, Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) will together control nearly 30 percent of the U.S. search market, giving them a better chance to compete with Google (GOOG), which holds a roughly 65 percent market share.

“We continue to believe that this deal will create a true, competitive alternative in the marketplace that will benefit consumers, advertisers and publishers,” the companies said in a joint statement. “We remain hopeful that the agreement will close in early 2010.”

10,000 apps. An impressively broad ecosystem for just under five months of development. Apple’s (AAPL) year-end list of Top App Store Downloads for 2008, then, is both handy and timely (Click on the image below to see the top 10 paid and free apps). It’s largely what you’d expect, with the Games and Entertainment categories proving most popular, Facebook and Pandora dominating the Free App category, and Texas Hold ‘Em and Moto Chaser topping the Paid App category. Fascinating to see the breadth on display here. Were you to purchase every app currently for sale at the store, it would set you back in excess of $30,000.