Two years after announcing it was developing its own search technology, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates took the wraps off a version of Microsofts long-anticipated search engine.

The company is looking to capture a larger piece of the lucrative search market from rivals Yahoo! And Google. According to market researcher comScore, MSN currently owns about 16 percent of the search space, behind Google (35 percent) and Yahoo! (32 percent). Some estimate that MSN Search will help increase Microsoft search traffic by more than 200 percent.

Although Yahoo! no longer supplies the editorial results at MSN Search, paid listings continue to come primarily from Yahoo!-owned Overture.

MSN Search is accompanied by a revamped look on MSN.com, which features the search box more prominently on the page.

And Microsoft is putting big bucks behind the launch. This is one of the Redmond, WA software giant’s biggest online campaigns ever. And that’s saying something.

Microsoft wouldn’t say how much it is spending on TV and print ads along with outdoor placements in 25 countries. However, the company did disclose that the campaign costs will top what it spent on MSN 8 and MSN 9, which each reached nearly $300 million.

Start blogging and let me know what you think of MSN Search or how this impacts the search market.