One interesting component of all this is Microsoft. There’s been some chatter of them bidding for the rights to provide AOL’s search results via their 10 month old “decision engine” Bing. This would be another step towards Microsoft’s attempt to compete with Google and claim more of the search market. However, their bid would likely be outbid significantly by Google.

One can only admire Bing’s effort to compete against Google’s powerhouse.  You might recall last summer’s deal between Microsoft and Yahoo!.  Once this deal is reviewed and finalized, it will be rather interesting to see how Bing progresses as they will be the clear cut number 2 in this market.