Although undefeated leader of the operating systems, second in the gaming console business and now even more popular due to its witty ads, Microsoft wants more. And, to Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, “more” is overthrowing Google from the top of the search engine hill.

Despite the high ambitions and ardent desire, Microsoft has so far failed to even be thought of as a worthy competitor to Google. In its race for search engine supremacy, Microsoft didn’t even rival far-second Yahoo. To try and enter this niche, Microsoft even offered Yahoo $44.6 billion, a bid unsolicited by the latter. This boded well for Yahoo, as their stock prices rose by 54% only after word got out about the offer. Later, Microsoft lowered the bid to $41.2 billion (50% cash and 50% in stock) due to their recent stock slide. Yahoo was unsurprisingly taken aback by the harassing, unsolicited and even hostile offers for their company.

Ballmer’s desperation to compete with Google is shockingly obvious, as he even vowed that Microsoft will soon be building market share, even if it’s the last thing he does as part of the company. Ballmer is already developing marketing strategies for when Microsoft will have already bought Yahoo and entered the search engine market. He stated that identical services will be eliminated in order for the search engines to offer users an actual choice between them. To Ballmer, the competition is in the differences.

Steve Ballmer does not seem to know the definition of “defeat”. Nor does he seem to be familiar with the popular phrase “It’s a lost battle”. Yahoo and MSN have been fighting and striving to catch up to Google and we mustn’t forget that before Google, they were the search engine giants. Their seniority, popularity and intense usage rate paled in comparison to what Google had (and still has) to offer. Will Microsoft be able to top that?