OP seems to be saying to throw a ton of money at search. Microsoft spent billions in losses over the past decade. Profitable now, but market share isn't too strong. And a lot of the market share gains are from Yahoo anyway.

So I agree. I don't see how Yahoo double or triple spending what Bing spent helping. Especially if they start out in 2017. On the other hand, if they work with Bing and have some sort of search engine Joint Venture with money and smarts poured in, maybe they can put a dent into search. I doubt Apple who care about profits so much would be down for such an endeavor.

I think MS just does not care too much about Bing anymore, it's all about Azure nowadays.

They've tried hard with Bing for so many years now. It's also profitable. They re-did their Yahoo deal a few years ago too. They care about Bing it seems, but it's clear they can't make much headway.