Updated: July 13, 2020 (June 15, 2009)

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Early 2003. Microsoft executives reportedly approve plans to build the company’s own Internet search engine rather than continuing to rely on technology from Inktomi (which Yahoo acquired in Dec. 2002).

June 2003. MSNBot, a Microsoft technology that crawls Web pages for search indexing, is discovered by Web site owners. Microsoft acknowledges plans to build its own search engine.

July 2003. Yahoo acquires Overture, the main provider of search advertising on MSN Search. Publicly, Microsoft claims it will continue to stick with Yahoo, but it begins working on its own search advertising platform in late 2003.

Nov. 2004. Microsoft conducts the first public beta of MSN Search with algorithmic results powered by its own technology rather than Inktomi’s.

Feb. 2005. The new MSN Search launches. Nielsen NetRatings places its U.S. market share at about 13%, behind Yahoo (22%) and Google (47%).

Mar. 2005. Microsoft acknowledges that it is building its own search advertising platform, adCenter, which will replace the Yahoo advertising platform it uses, and demonstrates the first component of the platform at a conference for MSN advertisers.

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