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The Philadelphia Inquirer

By Miriam Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Mar. 20--Comcast Corp., seeking to capitalize on the growing power of its user home page, Comcast.net, is negotiating with Microsoft Corp. to replace Google Inc. as the search provider on the Web site.

Google currently provides the results when customers perform a search at Comcast.net, and the search giant may continue to do so. But Comcast says it should get a bigger share of the revenue from that relationship, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Comcast gets $70 million a year now, but it is asking for $100 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported it over the weekend.

Comcast, Microsoft and Google declined to comment.

Comcast, already the country's largest video provider, with 24 million cable customers, is seeking to extend the power of its Web site. The cable giant has 11.5 million high-speed-Internet customers, making it second only to AT&T Inc.

About 70 percent of Comcast Internet customers use Comcast.net as a home page and for their e-mail. The site receives about 15 million visitors monthly.

Comcast has been exploring ways to profit from that audience, including boosting ad revenue. The firm also is talking to Yahoo Inc. and AOL L.L.C. about selling as much as 80 percent of the advertising on Comcast.net.

James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc., said the discussions with Microsoft coincided with Comcast's desire to boost revenue on its search site. But the talks also may represent an effort to curb the power of Google, which is making incursions into Comcast's business by adding video and dominating the online ad market.

It is ironic that Comcast turned to Microsoft for that, he said.

"Robin Hood isn't . . . the role you expect to see Microsoft playing," he said.

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