Microsoft, which has been developing its search engine for 18 months, is trying to get a bigger share of the lucrative business of combining Internet search and advertising, people familiar with the Redmond, Washington-based sofware company told the daily on Wednesday.

For Google, Microsoft's move could spell trouble since the new search engine will be incorporated in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, which sells as an intergral part of the Windows platform that equips 90 percent of personal computers sold around the world.

Analysts said Microsoft's search engine, a preview version of which will be unveiled Thursday, comes in response to Google's expected launch of free instant messaging and other services that broaden the areas it searches to include data on PCs.

Microsoft by year end is expected to also have a PC search tool, The Wall Street Journal said.

Scott Kessler, an analyst at Standard and Poor's in New York, said Microsoft's move into search is significant, but that the company is "well behind Google and Yahoo in terms of consumer perceptions about search. It's going to be an uphill battle for them."

But Microsoft, which was slow to realize the magnitude of the Internet revolution, is prepared to use its multi-billion-dollar treasure chest to quickly get all it needs to catch up.

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