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All search requests on Yahoo Inc.’s Website are now being processed by Microsoft Corp.’s technology. This partnership is in a bid to present a more formidable challenge to Google’s dominance of the search engine market. At the moment, the deal will only affect search engine requests that are written in English language across the United States and Canada. Other languages are expected to follow in a few weeks, however, while Microsoft will be powering the Yahoo search engine, Yahoo maintains that its search result pages will not be identical to Bing’s.
Yahoo hopes that by using the Microsoft Bing search engine, it will be able to significantly reduce costs and focus on other products and services in the current economic climate. The first half of the 10-year partnership will see Yahoo ads being displayed with Microsoft search technology on certain agreed commission rates. According to ComScore Inc., Microsoft and Yahoo hold 28% of the U.S. search market compared to Google’s 68% at present.
Meanwhile, users in other parts of the World are not expected to be included in these changes until sometime in 2011/2012 although Yahoo Japan Corp. is totally excluded from the deal, as it is run separately and relies on Google’s search engine technology.
Talking Point
Is this a good deal and do you see the Microsoft/Yahoo partnership catching up with Google anytime soon?