Hollywood Reporter columnist Diane Mermigas postulates that Bill Gates' recent proposal that Microsoft share a piece of its ad revenue with consumers in order to draw more search traffic could
have implications for all media--not just Internet search. She says such a move could accelerate the Internet gold rush, thereby affecting ad spending on other media. Under the proposal laid out by
Gates at a gathering in India last week, the incentive for consumers to use MSN Search would be something like sweepstakes, free content, free content, or even cash rewards. Meanwhile, Mermigas
wonders how this might affect the ongoing negotiations between Microsoft and Time Warner's America Online. AOL currently generates 45 percent of its revenue from the search agreement it has with
Google, but the company has publicly said it is looking to boost traffic to its portal through a better ad sales technology platform. Any move Microsoft makes that would bring more traffic to MSN
Search would also benefit AOL. Further, a combined AOL-MSN portal would have a combined public value of over $40 billion--still smaller than Google's mammoth $120 billion market cap--but the portal
space is likely to grow in the years ahead, as broadband TV becomes a reality.
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