In the debut keynote address at the Consumers Electronics Show 2009 (CES 2009) in Las Vegas, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer revealed that the Redmond company had partnered with Verizon in a move focused on Live Search, an alliance that was announced in advance by Verizon Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg.

In this regard, owners of Verizon mobile phones will be able to take advantage of Internet search services provided by Live Search. The move is critical for Microsoft, as the software giant struggles to gain additional market share for its search engine in the race against Google.

“I'm thrilled to announce a new long-term partnership with Verizon, to offer our Live Search on all Verizon wireless phones in the U.S. Search on the phone will be similar, but somewhat different from searching on the PC. And search will become an even bigger part of the overall mobile experience, which makes me very excited about this partnership with Verizon,” Ballmer stated.

According to Microsoft, the new partnership inked with Verizon involves not only mobile search, but also advertising. Throughout the duration of the five-year agreement, the software giant will provide users of Verizon mobile phones with both the Internet search gateway and ads tailored to their mobile devices.

Verizon is slated to become the top U.S. mobile carrier, surpassing AT&T, following the acquisition of the Alltel operator. In this regard, the partnership with the company headquartered in Redmond is delivering a blow to the its rivals on the search engine market, more specifically to Google and Yahoo, which were also reportedly negotiating with Verizon.

“Again, we're at the start of transforming what Windows is, but we're making very strong progress, and I'm proud of what we're in the process of delivering, across Windows on the PC, in the cloud, and on the phone,” Ballmer added.