I don't think the author works for Yahoo. I think it is a pretty hilarious idea. It is not really anarchy or corporate treason since if Yahoo engineers implemented this they would be benefiting themselves, and users may not even see a difference in the behavior of the search engine if it's done correctly. Search engine URLs are already very long, and if you are just a normal user would you actually look for affiliate codes? Just think about how many ebay/amazon links you see on search results and you will see that it could work. Is it fraud? Not necessarily since many of these affiliate programs allow people to drive traffic any way they want. It is using company property like the blog post said, though. That could get them fired, but if like you said they should just leave anyway, then what's the big deal?

Anyway, the author did acknowledge that it is very unlikely to happen because the whole team and more have to be involved, but I agree that it would be funny if it did and it would make a good geek movie.