Let the search engine wars begin!
Well actually, the war for search has been going on for quite some time, but Google Inc. has been dominating the competition with nearly a 50% share for quite some time. Now MSN is making a fairly big move by acquiring the rights to provide search results for Time Warner's AOL subsidiary.
According to several published reports MSN and AOL are close to cementing a deal, although Google is not completely out of the picture.
If the deal goes through it will revolve around the combination AOL and MSN's advertising-related assets, with little or no money exchanging hands.
This move would single a leveling of the playing field amongst the three main search entities; Google, Yahoo, and MSN. It would also be a welcomed move by webmasters that enjoy solid rankings in MSN's search engine.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the deal could be struck before year's end.