Microsoft buying still more share of Web search market

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Having been snubbed by prom queen Yahoo at the big dance last month, Microsoft is clearly still on the rebound.

First, the software company’s struggling Web search business, which is a distant third, began offering cash rebates to consumers who buy goods from some of its advertisers.

Today, it announced placement of a Live Search toolbar on Hewlett Packard PCs that ship starting in January. (Google, meanwhile, comes pre-installed on top PC rival Dell.)

And let’s not forget that Microsoft, after withdrawing its bid to acquire Yahoo, is still in talks to pick up only Yahoo’s search business, which is a bit like promising to stop at first base.

While PC desktop placements come and go, they aren’t cheap. Microsoft is throwing around the thing it has in ample supply -- money -- in hopes of getting consumers to at least try its search engine.

But they’ll only stay if that search engine delivers better than Google and Yahoo’s do.

-- Joseph Menn