A major shift in the search engine monopoly appears to be brewing

By Kenneth | May 19, 2008

Apparently as first reported on Robert Scoble’s blog and repeated on Truemors.com (run by Guy Kawasaki), it appears that Microsoft’s new “alternative” strategy in working with Yahoo will wind up greatly decreasing Yahoo’s status as a search engine powerhouse and help elevate Microsoft’s search status to rival that of Google. Surely while software development company is widely considered the 800 lb. gorilla in the room, it could be said that Google is exactly that in the online world. Who has the stamina and the resources to rival that of the almighty Google anyways? It seems that Microsoft may have found a way. And what is that?

Facebook.

Yes, Facebook…the social networking giant - one of the few largely popular sites that remains independent since its launch many years ago, might ultimately be bought by Microsoft, according to the reports by Scobleizer.com and also Furrier.org (business & technology blog run by John Furrier, CEO of PodTech Network). I enjoyed the insight spelled out by Scoble and think that would be a great move by Microsoft.

With its one-two punch, the software giant can increase its search engine holdings by snatching up some of Yahoo’s inventory, thereby increasing its market share and providing some much-needed momentum in racing against Google. But if Microsoft ups the ante and buys Facebook, would that be a coup for them? In the past couple of years, Microsoft and Google have been battling it out to see who could make the most acquisitions…Google taking YouTube and DoubleClick and Microsoft with aQuantive and JellyFish.com. Basically they’re forming their own media companies. To make a long story short, if Microsoft beats Google to the punch, they get even MORE inventory for ad-serving on Facebook and Yahoo more than what they would have with MSN Live Search and, as a commenter on Truemors.com pointed out, will help add a powerful social media application to Microsoft’s growing repetoire.

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