"Me too," says Microsoft

Microsoft today announced a search distribution deal with Hewlett-Packard, the largest such search deal Microsoft has had to date. This agreement, which is very similar to Google's deal with Dell, involves pre-installing HP computers with the Live Search toolbar, as well as making Live the default search engine in Internet Explorer.

The conventional wisdom behind such search deals is that many computer users are unable or unwilling to change the default factory settings on their computers, including default search engines.

This deal will have a considerable impact on Microsoft's web traffic, but this impact can certainly be overstated. For one, has tried to make Live Search more prominent in its new Vista OS, but has only been losing search market share since its release. Also, many PC users will bypass the embedded Live Search functions and go straight to Google's homepage to get their trusted search results. Whereas Google's search deal with Dell is likely to make people search with Google's toolbar much more often, Live Search's toolbar could make people search less frequently since the Live Search brand awareness is currently non-existent compared to Google's #1 global brand.

Nonetheless, this deal is a step in the right direction for Microsoft. I don't believe the terms of the deal have been made public, but I'm sure even a rich deal will be worth it for Microsoft because it has good reason to fear Google's dominance on the internet, which could carry over to--or eliminate the need for--the desktop.