In a bid that should help it secure a greater share of the European search market, Microsoft has announced a deal to acquire Greenfield Online, which owns the price comparison website ciao.com.

The move is thought to be part of Microsoft's larger strategy to chip away at Google's lead in search. In Europe, where Google has 79 percent of the search market, Microsoft hardly registers, accounting for only 2 percent of searches, according to data from comScore.

"The team at Ciao has built a passionate consumer community based on intuitive technology and extensive merchant relationships that we believe will deliver incremental benefit to the Microsoft Live Search platform," said Microsoft's vice president for Windows and online services, Tami Reller.

Microsoft will reportedly pay $486 million for the company, according to a Reuters report.