[s4sharpie]

Looks like a smart move by Yahoo to be the default search for a major browser: google/chrome, bing/ie. This also means that Firefox will likely get some serious support from Yahoo in $$s to build back market share. Question is can they catch Google?

[capkutay]

"Question is can they catch Google?"

I don't think so...but maybe in Yahoo's next 3 or 4 earnings reports they can say 'search revenues are up 50% this quarter' which will boost their stock price and lead to financial articles titled 'Will $YHOO kill $GOOG?'

[mightykan]

It'll be very interesting to see what this does to Bing's marketshare in six months or so, since Yahoo's search runs through Bing.

Although we might never find out, I'm very curious to find out the terms of the deal. Did Yahoo pay more? What about Microsoft? Were MS as motivated since they, essentially had two horses in the race (Bing and Yahoo) vs. Google? Lots of fun little details.

Edit: Typos

[graeme]

>It'll be very interesting to see what this does to Bing's marketshare in six months or so, since Yahoo's search runs through Bing.

Does Yahoo do their own tweaks? I just checked my site's ranking for a few terms in Bing vs. Yahoo. Bing gave much the same results as Google, whereas my site ranked significantly worse in Yahoo.

[huhtenberg]

Don't forget though that Yahoo Search runs off Bing.

[chuhnk]

But for how long? They've reached the mid-point on the Bing deal. Yahoo has been working on two search projects internally. They want to own search once again.

[dragonwriter]

> They want to own search once again.

Yahoo! never owned search before. The brief period where Yahoo! Search was an independent, rather than provided by a third party, was after Google became dominant (and Google was the last exclusive provider of Yahoo! Search before that independent period, which ended with the most recent Bing deal.) Before Google, Yahoo! Search was Inktomi (who was later bought by Yahoo! after Yahoo! stopped relying on them), and before that AltaVista (also later bought by Yahoo!)

Yahoo! has only ever owned being the interface to search.

[dec0dedab0de]

I remember both AOL, and Prodigy defaulted to Yahoo, when you had to list your site with Yahoo to be returned in results. When they called themselves a Directory. It was not quite search, but it was their own results, and they dominated the market.

Edit: type-o/clarity.

[dragonwriter]

> I remember both AOL, and Prodigy defaulted to Yahoo, when you had to list your site with Yahoo to be returned in results. When they called themselves a Directory.

Yeah, that was the pre-search strategy that Yahoo! (and others) pursued, and Yahoo! did own that for a while (I'd argue that their focus on such a curated list while search ramped up is what left them behind on search, leading to them relying on series of search providers -- which they kept buying up even after abandoning them as search providers), but they never caught up even when after those acquisitions they tried to go it alone.

So, sure, maybe they want to own search the same way they owned curated-directory-based web information, but that's different from wanting to own search again.

[dec0dedab0de]

Fair enough. Though I would say it still counts as search, whether they're crawling the internet or forcing sites to sign up manually.

I agree that the focus on a curated list is what held them behind, though it may be nice if someone were to provide that today at scale.

[cpeterso]

Does Yahoo's 10-year search deal with Microsoft/Bing restrict Yahoo from working on competing (i.e. not internal) search engines? Is Yahoo developing their own search engine, just waiting to deploy it when the Microsoft/Bing deal expires in 2020? :)

[chuhnk]

Good questions heh. The Mozilla deal is 5 years right? Plausible that this allows them to push forward in the search avenue without compromising the Bing deal while continuing the work on their own tech. I'm a big believer in Marissa Mayer's strategy so in full support of this Mozilla deal.

[fhd2]

> Question is can they catch Google?

I suppose they could, if they went for the same questionable bundling [1] and SEO [2] tactics as Google :)

Adding to that the fact that Google occasionally promotes Chrome on their various products (search engine et. al.), they haven't been particularly fair all in all. I doubt Mozilla will go that low, and I doubt they could gain significant ground even if they did.

[1] https://blog.avast.com/2009/12/03/avast-and-google-chrome

[2] https://plus.google.com/+MattCutts/posts/NAWunDzJSHC

[MLR]

I hadn't thought about it before, but I wonder if Yahoo would be willing to front a Firefox advertising campaign across its portals; similar to how Google used to (stil does?) promote Chrome across its own properties.