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Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Thursday he has a five-year target to gain a bigger slice of the lucrative online advertising market dominated by Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.

The online search industry has proven to be a fierce battlefield since it emerged in the mid 90’s. At the time, many companies ventured into the field hoping to capitalize on the fledgling industry. However 10 years later, a burst tech bubble has filtered out the also-rans, leaving behind three major contenders with one announcing its new proposal for a better search solution for advertisers and web surfers.

The two top Internet search engine companies proved last week there is still plenty of room for advertising growth, though Google's dominance marks a major advantage over Yahoo, according to analysts.

Time Warner Cable is in early discussions to create an auction system for advertising spots on video-on-demand channels, modeled after Google's AdSense system on the Internet, the company's CEO said.

Google is asking businesses, universities, nonprofits and other organizations to stay away from Google+ for a while.