That combination of capabilities is why, far from failing in the search game, MSN looks headed to win really big.

Advertising. Advertisers understand that good ad returns don't come from showing your ads to a lot of people. Good ad returns come from showing your ads to a lot of qualified people. Which is why, since adCenter offers the kind of targeting that only advertisers dream about, MSN stands to attract a whole lot more advertising dollars--even if it never moves past its No. 3 search traffic slot. At the end of the day, better targeting means more qualified outreach, which means happier advertisers--and more advertising.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has hinted at plans to feature adCenter on Xbox. Put that together with targeting, and you've hit the holy grail Madison Avenue has been looking for since the beginning of time: targeted ads to 12- to 34-year-old males.

Targeted ads aren't just an issue of better returns, either. More targeted search ads also mean more relevant paid search results. And if searchers feel like MSN Search offers better results, MSN can leverage those better results to grab more searchers. Which would make them more targeted and more popular--and all the more exciting to advertisers.

Dollars. MSN, you'll recall, stands for Microsoft Network. Now consider these numbers: while Google reported $6.1 billion in 2005 revenue, the Microsoft corporation reported over $7 billion in 2005 R&D expenses alone. In other words, Microsoft's got lots, of money to get where it wants to go--including to the top of the search engine pack.

Content. As my colleague Kevin Lee pointed out recently in ClickZ a portal's a fine way to create site stickiness. The MSN portal is certainly one to be reckoned with, and MSN is constantly investing to make it even better. It's got lots of content--some that's created specifically for MSN, some that's offered via partnerships with other sites, and still other content that's user-generated. That content features the MSN searchbar--which drives searchers eyeballs to adCenter ads.

How's your targeting? If you're an advertiser, get used to a well-targeted new era. MSN may or may not reach the No. 1 engine slot--or even the No. 2 engine slot--but if things continue the way they're looking now, you can bet MSN will move comfortably past the roughly 12 percent of search traffic it currently has. And because the other two big players are clearly scared, they'll start to offer a lot more targeting to woo users, too. Welcome to more targeted times.

That's good for you, because more targeting means more efficient advertising. But targeting also makes things more complicated, too--because it's yet another factor to deal with when you're planning search strategy. It's also yet another battlefield on which competitors can work against you.

Are you ready for it? If you're comfortable with how well you deal with sophisticated search problems now, you've got a better chance of doing OK when things get tricky. But if you're not working your best now, you need to get ready soon--before small problems become really big ones.

That's because, sooner or later, MSN Search is going to seriously affect us all--advertisers, engines, and search marketers alike.