One of the pieces of information buried in Microsoft’s (MSFT) earnings report was the improvement in the company’s online businesses, primarily made up of MSN and Live Search.

Revenue in that part of the company’s operations rose from $580 million last year to $688 million in the current quarter, up 19%. The unit still lost $239 million.

MSFT online still has a ways to go. Yahoo! (YHOO) bought in $1.7 billion in the last quarter, $1.2 billion if traffic acquisition costs are taken out.

In some ways the Yahoo! figures are good news for Microsoft. They are an indication that, based on the audience of  Microsoft sites and its improving share of search, the online unit’s revenue has a chance to double.

Douglas A. McIntyre