Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft can’t agree on much, and you might imagine that tossing some politicians into the situation wouldn’t help, but a common goal’s come to light.  These companies, along with many others and the Obama administration, intend to stop illegal online pharmacies from doing business.

William McQuillen reported today that a group including American Express, GoDaddy, Google, MasterCard, Microsoft, PayPal, Visa, and Yahoo is  "helping to establish a nonprofit organization targeting illegal Internet pharmacies in support of Obama administration efforts, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget."

Victoria Espinel, the White House intellectual property coordinator, explained, "It’s important that we act aggressively now before it snowballs into a bigger problem."

And indeed, "aggressive" is a good way to describe the group of corporations that’s been assembled.  The resources at their disposal are just about limitless, and the vast majority of Internet users must encounter at least one of their properties on a daily basis.

It might not take much convincing to get the companies to cooperate, either.  A dead user can’t click on ads, after all, and even setting aside Darwin Award nominees who buy toxic "V!@gr@," Google and the other companies should appreciate being safer from litigious drugmakers’ lawsuits.

We’ll be sure to keep an eye on this coalition’s actions over time.