Comcast, the largest cable provider in the nation, is currently in talks with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL regarding which of the three giants will provide search functions and advertising for the company’s website as Google’s current 3 year contract comes to a close.  Under their current contract with Google the companies website received 17 million unique visitors in the month of February alone.

Searches on Comcast currently bring a lot of advertising dollars to Google,  under the current contract the search giant is thought to be paying around $70 million per year to Comcast.  Microsoft hopes to garner a larger part of the search market as it currently lags far behind Google who currently has close to 50% of the market while Microsoft has just over 10%.

Comcast also hope to build up advertising revenue on their own site, an aspect they are only just beginning to develop.   They are also hoping to expand their available online services allowing viewers to plan TV schedules and receive voice mail online. They are also hoping that their chosen advertiser will help develop their YouTube competitor site Ziddio.