Yahoo could poach Vodafone search deal from Google
Published: 9 March, 2009
Although Google continues to head the league table for most used mobile search engine, its position is threatened by the rising trend for carriers to provide their own optimized web experience, featuring their chosen default applications and often their own brands. If a carrier defaults on a certain search engine, this will attract uptake by a vast majority of the operator's customers. Microsoft has already stolen this position from Google at Verizon Wireless, and Yahoo at a long list of carriers, especially in Asia, and now Vodafone could be looking to replace Google with Yahoo too.
According to financial news service Bloomberg, Yahoo is in talks with Vodafone to replace its arch-rival as the default mobile search product in the massive cellco's European territories. Both firms refused to comment, and Yahoo would only say it was in talks with "a number of operators around the world, including Europe."
The reports have no doubt been sparked by the fact that Vodafone's current default search deal with Google, signed in 2006, expires later this year. Bloomberg maintains the cellco is not talking to any other potential partners apart from Yahoo. This is despite the operator's recent decision to join the Open Handset Alliance, which supports Google's Android platform, and to launch the world' second Android phone, the HTC Magic, as an exclusive.
Despite operator interest in Android, many want to ensure that Google does not attain the kind of power over their key technologies that Microsoft had in the PC world, which could lead them to spread their favors among the mobile internet players. In many respects, Yahoo has delivered a more advanced mobile web experience in recent times, though its recent upgrade of its platform de-emphasized search in favor of supporting multiple services and revenue streams, for Yahoo itself and its cellco partners.
Key Yahoo search allies include AT&T, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile UK.
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