In the next three to five years Microsoft hopes to be one of the top two players in the online advertising market. This is according to Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platforms and services devision, which he laid out at a recent UBS investor conference. The plan breaks down like this:

• Increase MS sites from 6 percent to 10 percent of all Internet page views
• Increase the percentage of minutes spent on MS sites from 17 percent to 20 percent of total time spend on the ‘net
• Increase online search using MS sites from 10 percent to 30 percent
• Increase the percentage of all ‘net advertising dollars from 6 percent to 40 percent

Lofty goals Microsoft. Some innovation is going to be key to their strategy. Meaning, they are going to have to bring something new to the market, instead of simply playing catch up with Google.