when I look at the probable outcomes of this... In discussions of this, I'm always surprised that people forget that Microsoft has had the axe of anti-trust li

when I look at the probable outcomes of this... In discussions of this, I'm always surprised that people forget that Microsoft has had the axe of anti-trust litigation looming over it's head for years. They haven't been able to compete aggressively on a number of fronts, because they could easily be seen as anti-competitive, and end back in the courts. But, now, search is a market where they are clearly the underdog. And, Microsoft finally has an arena they can step into and fight bare bloody knuckled without arousing anti-trust eyebrows in the US or EU governments. And, Bing is competing rather well. Bing launched 18 months ago, and they now have 30% of the total search market (Yes, the bought a good bit of that through Yahoo). And, they are finally presenting a viable competitor to Google in general web search, which I believe is good for all. Not only that, but in a number of search verticals, IMHO Bing's technology is quite a bit better than Google's (image search, video search and travel search). I think Google has a reason to be scared and start throwing punches. Microsoft has a much more diverse revenue stream, and they can afford to lose money on search for years without breaking a sweat. Google primarily has a single source of revenue: search advertising. It'll be interesting to see how Google reacts when it's back is against the wall fighting for it's only revenue stream. I agree with the OP. This is going to be a fun fight to watch.