Microsoft is acquiring Greenfield Online, the parent company of European price comparison site ciao.com, for $486 million.

The company said ciao's technology would precipitate the development of a more consumer-friendly search engine for European users, reports Reuters.

Google is currently the top search engine in Europe, with 79 percent of search share as of March, followed by eBay and Russian search site Yandex.

But John Mangelaars, head of Microsoft's consumer and online business in Europe, insisted that Microsoft is growing "very serious about EMEA" — Europe, the Middle East and African markets. He also divulged Microsoft plans to call its ciao.com-infused search engine "instant answers."

Results will also be more useful than those Google serves, particularly to shoppers. For example, searching for a given product could yield comparative prices across retailers, as well as maps of each retailer's location, he said. Customers will also be rewarded for certain shopping behavior.

Microsoft currently serves two percent of market share in Europe and nine percent worldwide. The purchase of Greenfield Online follows the recent acquisition of Fast, a Norwegian enterprise search firm, earlier this year for $1.2 billion. Last year it also bought jellyfish.com, a shopping and auction site, for an undisclosed amount.