After the Yahoo deal debacle, Microsoft sits pretty with a load of cash and very many online properties as possible suitors.

An excerpt from EarthTimes

Top executives of Time Warner in New York sense a fresh opportunity to pretty up their subsidiary AOL, which has never been a happy piece of the Time Warner constellation, as a potential bride to Microsoft.

A young star in the web community, such as micro blogging service Twitter, can be bought for 150 million dollars. Similarly, popular web 2.0 services such as Digg, FriendFeed, Meebo an Ning are mentioned as possible targets for Microsoft.

FaceBook always looks a great buy but with advertising on social networks failing to take off in a big way perhaps it may not fit the bill that Microsoft seeks to book. The chief reason why Ballmer was eying Yahoo was to bulldoze his way into online advertising revenues. No other services can fill the space that Yahoo occupies.

Perhaps the company needs to take a renewed look at advertising. What made Google the 800-pound gorilla it is today is not just relevant search but also a advertising model that many had previously written off. Microsoft could do the same with a social networking or a hot web property deal - Find out a way to monetize on the extra services it could offer. This includes tying its forthcoming releases of online productivity applications with a web applications with large user base.

There are many who feel that perhaps Microsoft should let go of its obsession for ad dollars and focus on enterprise services such as SalesForce or Zoho. It could also consider pumping in the dollars for mobile technology acquisitions. With mobile internet access waiting to lift off, ad based models needs a total change with the reduced display area and short tolerance for intrusive advertising. There is immense scope in this field.

There are immense possibilities. All depends on which way things are viewed.