After Microsoft and Yahoo announced their search engine team-up in July, lobbying has heated up against Google, Daily Finance reported last week.

Microsoft's head lobbyist and outside consultants are holding regular meetings referred to by "some beltway insiders as 'screw Google' meetings," the Web site reports.

Microsoft, the No. 3 player in the search engine field, and Yahoo, No. 2, have ample reason to attack Google: It's the top provider by a wide margin. The article says that Google holds about 70 percent of the search ad market.

"Microsoft is at the center of a group of companies who see Google as a threat to them in some combination of business and policy," one anonymous source was quoted as saying. "The effort is designed make Google look like the big high-tech bad guy here."

"Microsoft is trying to harm Google in the regulatory, legal, and litigation arenas because they're having problems with Google in the competitive marketplace," another source said in the article. "... Microsoft has got some of the best, highest-priced lobbyists that money can buy in Washington."

Microsoft's Washington spokeswoman, Ginny Terzano, told Daily Finance that Google has been mentioned in meetings with consultants and lawmakers, but she called the alleged "screw Google" angle of those meetings "absurd" and told the site that its sources were "badly misinformed."

Since Microsoft and Yahoo announced their 10-year partnership in July, the companies have worked in D.C. to ensure the deal would be approved by the Department of Justice under antitrust laws. The companies said in a statement that Microsoft would power Yahoo's search engine while Yahoo would handle advertising sales.

Read about Google's lobbying spending at Tech Daily Dose.