Ballmer, that’s Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, says Microsoft will have its own search engine within the next 12 months.

Steve also said “there’s no magic about search; all it takes is good, hard work,” and that when Microsoft’s engine is released, “you’ll see good competition in the search arena.”

Part of the MS search strategy includes Newsbot, a news aggregator, Blogbot and Answerbot. Blogbot will enable searchers to find blogs featuring topics of their choosing. Answerbot will attempt to answer questions like “Who’s the richest man in the world?”

The company currently uses Yahoo search technology at its’ MSN.com website.