As of 8 am today, users who will download or upgrade Java for Internet Explorer will be prompted to install a MSN search bar that will set Microsoft's search engine as the predefined one. The deal, announced earlier today by Microsoft and limited to US surfers only, has the potential to make a very large number of users switch from Google in a matter of just a few days.

According to a statement on Microsoft's website, those who are installing the Java Runtime Environment for the first time will get a prompt to download and install the MSN and to make Live Search the default choice for their browsers; those who have already installed Java on their personal computers will instead get the same prompts from the Java update interface: in other terms, no settings will be changed automatically and without the user's consent, but it is still likely that a good portion of the users being prompted might give their consent to the process.

The deal between Sun Microsystems and Microsoft is one of their very first on the the consumer side, and might be a sign that the rivalry that was existing between the two, is a thing of the past. Microsoft senior vice president Yusuf Mehdi said in a statement:

"This agreement with Sun Microsystems is another important milestone in our strategy to secure broad-scale distribution for our search offering, enabling millions more people to experience the benefits of Live Search. With the vast array of Java software-based Web applications that are downloaded every month, this deal will expose Live Search to millions more Internet users and drive increased volume for our search advertisers."

In fact, Java and Flash players are most certainly the two most widely used application environments used in popular websites such as YouTube and many others, with the JRE being downloaded tens of millions of times each month and — according to Microsoft's estimates — already present in about 91 percent of Internet browsers. However, there are some

who speculate that the deal won't have such a big impact on the search engine market shares, citing that most users who agree to install the search bar would either have done it by mistake or end up switching back to Google anyway.

As noted by The Register, in fact, the option to download the MSN search bar is checked by default: while this means that a much higher number of users are likely to download and install the product at first, it also means that the additional software could be perceived as an unwanted addition that could be soon uninstalled.

Google had previously made a deal with Sun to distribute StarOffice, an alternative office productivity suite, as part of the "Google Pack" downloadable directly from the search engine website, even though the deal has apparently reached an end, just like the deal, signed back in 2005 by the two companies, to distribute Google's browser toolbar along with Sun's software products. In the last few years, Sun Microsystems has therefore seemingly made a move away from the Mountain View search engine and towards the Redmond-based software giant, and analysts will soon be able to determine what impact this will make on the search engine market shares for Google and Microsoft.

Microsoft also has "volume" distribution deals with computer makers Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard to preload all Love Search tools on newly installed personal computers, and is also reportedly investing in ways to improve its search offer to make the user experience faster and more appealing for the end users, so that more people will want to use it and that occasional customers might end up sticking to their tools instead of Google's: in addition, the company has also been offering prizes and rebates in the past to a selection of Windows/Internet Explorer/Live Search users through their "Cashback" program in order to further appeal their customers.

But despite their best efforts Live Search continues to steadily lose market, primarily to Google: "An August research report from Hitwise showed Google with 70 percent of online search queries and Microsoft in third place with 5 percent. That's down from 10 percent for MSN in January 2007" said PCWorld.