One of the best cards in AOL's difficult hand has been its search deal with Google, which was up for renewal this year. This morning the two companies announced (ahead of a December deadline) that they were staying together, though I can only imagine the folks at Bing didn't make it easy. At the moment, only three parties know what Google paid - Google, AOL, and Microsoft, which knows at least what Google must have topped to win the deal.

Here's the official release. Financial details are not disclosed, yet, but more will probably be available in future SEC filings.