WebProNews

There's likely no cause and effect here.  Still, while it was getting rejected by Yahoo, Microsoft conducted something of a "look at me," campaign, with comScore naming it the top U.S. online display advertiser in June.

Microsoft beat out entities like the University of Phoenix, Verizon, AT&T, and Netflix in order to grab first place.  This rank corresponded to a 1.7 percent share of the market, or 5.5 billion display ads seen by 126.3 million people.

As for the direct reason behind Microsoft's impressive stats, comScore stated they were "due in large part to its promotional campaign for Windows Live Search, including ads for Windows Live Search Club games and the new Windows Live Search cashback program."

Admittedly, this behavior didn't attract Yahoo, and there's no question that Google's still on top.  comScore found that Microsoft's share of the search market rose 0.7 percent in June, though, so we may see the promotional trend continue for quite some time.

Yahoo, for its part, did well on the display ad publisher side of the equation, coming in second.  Fox Interactive Media (read: MySpace) nabbed first place, and AOL got third.  Microsoft's name appeared again in fourth place, with Google winding up in fifth.