Maybe so but MSN still gets 10 times as much traffic as Google does every month.

Everyone looks at this as if Microsoft has to gain marketshare. They don't. As I have been saying, they have the second largest ISP in the United States, they already have agreements with some of the largest telecommunications companies to bring more customers. They sell over a million television access devices a year which only work with their Provider's Network. They have the infrastructure to sell advertising for the search engine in place already. This includes a worldwide network of salespeople and their small business website.

Even if only half of their MSN visitors use their search engine, they already have a significant portion of the traffic they need to be in the top three. The last thing that Microsoft needs to worry about is initial traffic. They have been building that for four years already. They have the marketshare, all they have to do is use their own technology instead of leasing it like they are currently doing.

This doesn't mean they will dominate. I think the top tier of websearching has room for three players, each doing equally well. Those players will be Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. AOL doesn't seem to have any interest in this venue and the rest are using repackaged results or will be bought to strengthen the three top brands.