Microsoft Beefs Up in Battle with Google Over Search Engine Market

The software giant's blockbuster pact with Yahoo would give it almost a third of the market. But the proposed alliance faces antitrust hurdles.

After a decade of skirmishes among dozens of Internet search services, only two major players may be left standing on the battlefield: the world's largest search engine, Google Inc., and its newly powerful rival, Microsoft Corp.

Instead of using its own search engine, Yahoo's massive network of Web pages would feature Microsoft's Bing, more than tripling Microsoft's reach. That would instantly give the Redmond, Wash., company almost a third of the search engine market, an expansion that could send shock waves through the industry. Two-thirds of Internet search queries in the U.S. are made through Google's dominant engine, according to Web ratings firm ComScore.

"Tectonic would be a good word," said Tim Cadogan, chief executive of OpenX, an online advertising company in Pasadena and former senior Yahoo executive who oversaw the company's search efforts. "It creates a viable competitive force in the search landscape to be able to compete with Google."

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