Looking to boost its shrinking share of the online search market, Microsoft Corp. said that beginning Monday, its MSN tool bar would be bundled with Sun Microsystems' ubiquitous Java software in the U.S.
For Microsoft, the deal is a symbolic coup, because it partly replaces a high-profile agreement Sun struck with Google in 2005 to bundle the Google tool bar with Java.
Despite a number of initiatives, including offering cash back to users who use its Live Search to buy products, Microsoft has seen its share of the search market continue to fall, while Google's has continued to rise.
The Java deal -- which applies only to Internet Explorer users -- should provide a boost because Java is installed on millions of computers, in part to view Web sites. Internet Explorer users who download Java for the first time or who update existing versions of the software will be given the option to also get the MSN tool bar, which includes a field for Live Search.
Users who choose to download the tool bar also will be asked whether they want to switch their default search engine to Live Search.
Brad Goldberg, general manager of Microsoft's Search Business Group, said the deal with Sun was part of the company's strategy to increase the distribution of Live Search.
He noted that Microsoft had also reached a deal with Hewlett-Packard to put a Microsoft tool bar on all of its new computers. That deal goes into effect in January. Under another agreement, a Microsoft tool bar is also preloaded on new Lenovo computers.
Goldberg declined to say how much traffic Microsoft expected to generate from the arrangement with Sun.
But he said that across the market, about 35 percent of search queries come from entry points such as a tool bar, the address bar or a search bar within a browser.
Eric Klein, the vice president for Java marketing at Sun, declined to say how many users had downloaded the Google tool bar through Java.
Referring to the bundling, he said, "it's clear it's working," judging by the interest of companies such as Microsoft.
Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft in Redmond
However, he said, "getting search in front of you isn't enough."
Financial terms, as well as the duration of the partnership, were not disclosed.
Sun provided few details about why its relationship with Google had ended in the United States
Klein said Sun had "made a change in direction."
A separate agreement -- under which Sun put the Google tool bar within its StarOffice suite -- also expired on Monday, although the two companies continue to have other business relationships.
The Google tool bar in Star Office will not be replaced by Microsoft's offering.
The agreement between Sun and Microsoft shows once again how far the two companies' relationship has evolved.
In 1997, Sun sued Microsoft, alleging that the company had misused its Java technology. In 2001, Microsoft settled the case for $20 million. A year later, Sun filed a private antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, again over Java.
That case was settled for roughly $1.95 billion in 2004, when Sun and Microsoft entered a broad cooperation agreement, which was expanded three years later.
"The nature of the basic relationship between Sun and Microsoft has changed significantly over the past couple of years," Sun's Klein said.
"This is another rendition of that."
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