Microsoft pledges Google catch-up

A Microsoft executive has pledged his company will catch up with Google in terms of advertising and search if it takes his "last breath".

Chief executive of the software giant Steve Ballmer made his comments at a technology conference in Las Vegas, claiming that the unsolicited Microsoft bid for Yahoo! would have sped up its efforts to create a competitive alternative to Google, Reuters reports.

"In online, yeah, it's Google, Google, Google and we're in the game. We're just the little engine that could," he laughed.

At the beginning of February, Google responded scathingly to Microsoft's bid for Yahoo!, claiming it raised "troubling questions" over openness and innovation.

David Drummond, senior vice-president of corporate development and chief legal officer with Google, asserted that the software creator has in the past sought to establish proprietary monopolies from which to leverage its dominance further.

He added that Microsoft "plus Yahoo!" would allow the group an enormous share of instant messaging and email accounts.