I'm not sure if Microsoft has definitively decided to stop trying to acquire all or part of Yahoo or is just putting more pressure on CEO Jerry Yang to try and complete a deal.But after spending the better part of four months pursuing a strategy that can be called, "sell to us or else, Jerry," Microsoft sure looks like it's implementing a Plan B in its pursuit of more search market share. Microsoft today struck a deal with Hewlett-Packard to make LiveSearch the default consumer search engine on the desktops of HP PCs in 2009 -- thereby replacing Yahoo search. Like its plan to pay people to buy things using the LiveSearch service, the HP deal is more evidence that ... [ Read more ]