Comcast (CMCSA)  runs one of the largest web portals on the internet. Currently, it refers search traffic to Google (GOOG). The deal is apparently worth $70 million a year to Comcast. They want more.

Enter Microsoft, which is beginning to make serious on its threat to take search share from Google and Yahoo! (YHOO).

Google may be on another collision course with a large company with which it has conflicting goals. Microsoft would like to be there to pick up the pieces. If it is serious about increasing it portion of the search market, it will put a good deal more on the table than $70 million a year. A few deals of this size, and Microsoft may actually emerge as a threat in search.

Douglas A. McIntyre