SAP, the mammoth German software maker, has agreed to acquire business intelligence vendor Business Objects S.A. for around €4.8 billion (that’s around $6.7 billion U.S., assuming the dollar didn’t dip even further against the Euro today.)

SAP intends to integrate Business Objects BI software into its own ERP offerings, the company said in a statement, helping companies make sense of the often vast amounts of data they collect on customers, partners and themselves.

The acquisition is just the latest development in a booming, though quickly consolidating, business intelligence market. IDC reported that the worldwide market for business intelligence software grew by nearly 12% in 2006 to $6.25 billion, and Business Objects rival Cognos is a likely next acquisition for some big-name vendor.

During a conference call on Monday, Business Objects CEO John Schwarz said the merger makes strategic sense, helping the combined companies increase sales to the SMB market, according to CMP Channel. Each company has nearly 3,000 channel partners that do business with SMB customers, CMP Channel reported Schwartz as saying.

SAP has been courting the SMB market lately, most recently with the launch of SAP Business ByDesign, a full suite of business applications delivered through the SaaS model, as Shamus told you about last month. SAP expects to win 10,000 customers for Business ByDesign by 2010, according to Computerworld. With the acquisition of Business Objects, SAP hopes to add even more SMBs to that total.

When Google Inc. bought hosted security and compliance vendor Postini for $625 million in July, experts said Google was aiming to boost the security and compliance capabilities of its emerging Google Apps product. The speculation was that Google was hoping this move would attract larger enterprises as Google Apps customers.

Less than three months later, Google has announced that it is officially adding Postini’s security and compliance capabilities to Google Apps.

Naturally, larger companies with bigger security and compliance concerns might be tempted to consider Google Apps now. However, analysts and users have warned that Google Apps is a nice supplement to other office productivity suites like Microsoft Office. No one, not even the smallest SMBs, really sees Google Apps as a replacement technology. Most of the components of Google Apps still have the “beta” sticker on them, even Gmail, which seems as standard a Google App as apple pie these days. I feel like I’ve been using it since I was a wee lad.

Anyway, SMBs with compliance concerns will probably welcome the Postini features, too.

Google’s dominance in the online search realm is well documented, as are Yahoo’s hitherto unsuccessful attempts to reclaim the search crown for itself. Unfortunately for Yahoo, its 23 percent share of the search market is still less than half of Google’s formidable 56.5 percent share, according to the AP.

But Yahoo, like the little engine that could, just won’t give up. (Ok, with revenues in excess of $6 billion last year, perhaps comparing Yahoo to a make-believe, little blue train with the engine power of a Dodge Dart is a bit of a stretch, but you get my point.)

Today, Yahoo announced the debut of Search Assist, what the company says is “the most advanced assistance technology available on the Web.” Essentially, with Search Assist enabled, users are offered suggestions as they type search terms on Yahoo’s home page.

For instance, when I began typing New England Patriots, — who demolished the Cincinnati Bengals Monday by 21 points, in case you missed it — into Yahoo’s search field, by the time I finished typing just New E, a number of suggestions popped up below. They included new era, new edition and, of course, new england patriots.

But that’s not all. Yahoo also announced search results will now include content of all types, including video, audio and photos. Hmm. Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah, Google started doing the same thing four months ago, calling it Universal Search. Better late than never, right Yahoo?

But I kid. Actually, Yahoo adding integrated search results four months after Google did the same thing is pretty good time when you think about it. Remember the Panama delays anyone?

So does this mean Yahoo is on the verge of toppling Google? Not exactly, but it should at least get people talking about the company again. As Standard & Poor’s equity analyst Scott Kessler told the AP:

“Is this (upgrade) going to be very important in terms of market share? I’m not so sure. But it probably will help them in terms of mind share,” Kessler said. “One of the reasons that Google has captured the imaginations of so many people is they have been doing so many different and interesting things.”

Put another way, Yahoo has an image problem. Over the last several years we’ve witnessed some truly remarkable technology developments in the form of Web 2.0, from the rise of social networking sites (i.e., MySpace and Facebook) to the emergence of cloud computing (a.k.a. Software as a Service). The result? Web 1.0 companies, like Yahoo, seem quickly old and out of touch.

You can argue that such a perception is wrong or shortsighted, but it nonetheless exists . For Yahoo to become relevant again, it needs to take bold steps to prove it “gets it.” Search Assist and integrated search results are moves in the right direction, as was the recent acquisition of Zimbra and its open source online office suite. Yahoo still has a long way to go to catch Google, but if it keeps this up, it might just turn this thing around after all.