Yahoo! has struck a deal with Google that will have Google search results and advertisements appearing on Yahoo! SERPs. This arrangement, strange as it may seem, is a solid indication of exactly how dominant Google has become, and how far Yahoo! has fallen, in the search world.
The new arrangement was announced yesterday morning as part of a Yahoo! earnings report that stated:
In October, the Company reached an agreement with Google that provides Yahoo with additional flexibility to choose among suppliers of search results and ads. Google’s offerings complement the search services provided by Microsoft, which remains a strong partner, as well as Yahoo’s own search technologies and ad products.
The three-year deal is something of a win-win for the two search competitors. Yahoo! will be collecting revenue on Google ads and will also be boosting its mobile presence as part of the package. As part of the arrangement, they’ll be able to use Google results for as much as 49% of their total results.
Search industry watchers will recall that Bing is already in a similar arrangement which, according to SearchEngineLand.com, was recently renewed. In that arrangement, Bing provides around 51% of Yahoo!’s search results.
That 51% limitation, however, only applies to desktop results. In the rapidly growing, and hugely important, mobile space Yahoo! is free to use Google for 100% of its results.
For Google’s part, they’ll grab another sliver of the search market, while making a few advertising bucks in the process.
The one thing that could, potentially, derail the deal is an anti-trust ruling from US trade regulators. The agreement inked between the two sides puts a kibosh on the deal if it fails to pass muster with the Department of justice. (They don’t have to worry about European regulators because Europe was expressly not included in the deal.)
It remains to be seen how well Yahoo! can do now that it has farmed out pretty much all of its search operations but, given how well that’s been going for them lately, maybe that’s not such a bad idea.