Yahoo Renews Bing Search Partnership With Microsoft, Adds In A Few Tweaks
Not too long ago, there were some serious doubts as to whether Microsoft and Yahoo would be able to ink a deal to continue there search partnership. However, those fears were unwarranted, as the two companies today announced that they have forged a new agreement the will still see Microsoft’s Bing engine power Yahoo search.
There are of course a few changes compared to the original search deal that was put in place back in 2009. This time around, the search partnership is non-exclusive for both desktop and mobile search. So while Yahoo will still be using Bing technology to power the majority of its searches, it still has the flexibility to tailor the search experience for its customers.
“Yahoo will continue to serve Bing ads and search results for a majority of its desktop search traffic,” said Yahoo in a joint press release.
Another change comes in the way ads are served. Going forward, Microsoft will retain sole ownership of ads and sell ads through its Bing Ads platform, while Yahoo will continue to maintain its Gemini ads platform. Microsoft and Yahoo will also “[integrate] the sales teams with those responsible for engineering will allow both companies to service advertisers more effectively.”
In addition, the existing revenue sharing deal which has Microsoft paying Yahoo a percentage of Bing Ads revenue generated from Yahoo searches will go forward mostly unchanged.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (Source: Microsoft)
“Our global partnership with Yahoo has benefited our shared customers over the past five years and I look forward to building on what we’ve already accomplished together,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “This renewed agreement opens up significant opportunities in our partnership that I’m very excited to explore,” added Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.
In other Bing news, comScore is reporting that Bing has managed to secure 20.1 percent of the U.S. desktop search engine market for the month of March.
