So, Microsoft is buying Powerset. Was this a good move for Microsoft, or could their money have been better spent elsewhere?

It seems to me that Powerset brings with it more search issues than it solves. Moving in on Google's search dominance has to start somewhere, though, and maybe it will be better than the Live Search model.

I think M$ always wants to be where the people are and wiki is a good choice. I dont see any reason why they would not pass up something like this. I could see some crazy ads they might run though coming into play.

I don't see why they needed to do this at all. They have a huge empire already, with the majority of revenue in the West coming to them. Now they are so unhappy with their online share that they are trying for dominance there too.

Time will tell if this is a good deal for them. I think they could have done great things with Yahoo and they still might. We'll have to see if they've done this to make it better or just limit the competition for Yahoo.

I agree George, and one of the most successful people will tell you that it pays to diversify. Not having all your eggs in one basket.

Flumpet - they have to keep growing in order to continue to compete. That's just good business sense. You never stop growing your business or adding to your product line unless you have something that nobody else has. Then you may be able to get away with it but that is very rare.