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Marissa Mayer Says Yahoo Would 'Welcome the Opportunity' to Become Default Safari Search Engine

Wednesday January 28, 2015 6:50 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Yahoo AppYahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer, during the company's quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, expressed interest in Yahoo becoming the default search engine in Safari. Mayer recognized the significance that getting Yahoo in front of Mac, iPhone and iPad could have for the search engine, referring to Apple's default web browser as "one of the premier search deals in the world if not the premier search deal in the world."
"The Safari platform is basically one of the premier search deals in the world if not the premier search deal in the world," Mayer told RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney. "We're definitely in the search distribution business. I think that we've stated that really clearly in the past and I think with Mozilla and also in addition we brought Amazon eBay on board with smaller distribution partnerships in Q4."
Google renewed its search partnership with Apple in 2010, although the contract is reportedly set to expire in 2015 and, supported by the fact that Google Maps and YouTube are no longer stock iOS apps, Apple is speculated to be considering a number of options. Back in November, it was reported that both Microsoft and Yahoo were courting Apple to become the default search engine in Safari.
"We're in the search distribution business and anyone who is in that business needs to be interested in the Safari deal. The Safari users are among the most engaged and lucrative users in the world and it's something we would really like to be able to provide.

We've worked really closely with Mozilla to ultimately bring to their users an experience that they designed and that they feel really suits those users and we would welcome the opportunity with any other partner to do the same, particularly one with Apple's volume and user base."
The New York Times, citing various reports from analysts, suggests that Google losing its Safari contract may not have much impact on the company's bottom line. The two important factors involved are how much Google is paying for its Safari search engine deal, and how many users would simply switch back to Google if Apple switched to Yahoo or another search provider as default.

Tags: Microsoft, Yahoo, Bing, Safari
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MartinAppleGuy
60 months ago
Yahoo should separate their search engine and their home page. Its like living in the 90's again.
Rating: 28 Votes
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MagicBoy
60 months ago
Whatever. Until something offers better results than Google I'll continue to change it!
Rating: 21 Votes
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Rm.237
60 months ago
Keep grasping at those straws Marissa.
Rating: 11 Votes
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Chatter
60 months ago
Well, thats a big DUH. Who would not want to be in that position?
Rating: 11 Votes
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Rafagon
60 months ago
They can change it to Baidu for all I care. Just leave the setting where I can change it back to whatever I like.
Rating: 10 Votes
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Tankmaze
60 months ago
Meh, lots of people would switch instantly to google if this happen. Waste of money for yahoo.
Rating: 7 Votes
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McFreggle
60 months ago
Altavista FTW!
Rating: 7 Votes
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extricated
60 months ago
I'm not a "fan" of Google, but they yield consistently solid content on searches - so I use them. If Yahoo can produce a great experience in that regard, go for it; but I'm doubtful.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Matthew Yohe
60 months ago
So, the default would essentially be Bing then?
Rating: 5 Votes
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kds1
60 months ago
No thank you.

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I keep trying to leave Google's data mining empire. I've gone to Duck Duck Go, Bing, Yahoo, and a few others over the years. I keep ending up back at Google because it works. It has the most complete listings. I find what I want.
<sigh>


Other than YouTube and news.google.com, I'm out of Google. I use Bing. Google is not welcome on my devices otherwise.

P.S. Google being "better" is a myth
Rating: 4 Votes

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