According to this article, back in 2002, the market share of Yahoo, Google, and MSN was pretty much the same: 

These days, things are a little different.  MSN in Canada has recently launched a campaign which is aiming to get back some of the % of searches that they have lost to Google.  They have launched a new website http://www.bigticketsearch.com/, which will give away prizes to individuals who do searches here.  The idea is that the more you search, the more likely you will win.

Every time you enter in a search query, it shows you pictures of 2 tickets, and if they have matching pictures – you win whatever is in the picture (an Xbox, Season Tickets, $10,000 cash etc.)

They are promoting this extension of their search engine heavily with banner ads that show up when you log into Hotmail.  This is probably a smart move on their part since their email service currently outranks everyone except Yahoo Mail (source: http://www.hitwise.com/datacenter/rankings.php – October 2008). 

MSN started this promotion in Canada on October 31, 2008 and it will run until December 31, 2008.

MSN's new promotional search site