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Yahoo Teams Up With HP in Attempt to Boost Its Search EngineSAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Yahoo Inc. said Thursday it has struck a deal with Hewlett-Packard Co. to plant its Internet search engine on millions of computers, the latest volley in a high-stakes battle with Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The alliance unites two companies trying to catch up to the longtime leaders in their respective fields.
Sunnyvale-based Yahoo ranks a distant second to Google in the lucrative search engine market while Palo Alto-based HP continues to trail Dell Inc. in personal computer sales despite recent gains.
The agreement requires HP to set up its desktop and notebook PCs in North America so Yahoo's search engine appears in the toolbar of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7, the next version of the Web's most widely used browser. Yahoo is hoping that the tool bar will generate more search requests, providing a springboard for more ad revenue.
Mountain View-based Google and Round Rock, Texas-based Dell teamed up in a similar partnership announced four months ago.
Associated Press [biz.yahoo.com]
If Yahoo is losing visitors/searches, it's for a reason. They shouldn't force their second-rate services onto unsuspecting people; that is just cheap. They must be desperate.
I also hope there is a clear and unambiguous way to change the search-engine preference.
I doubt if it will make much difference to anyone else either. Sooner or later, the people buying the HP PCs will switch to Google anyway. Most of the computers in the UK have MSN as the default search engine, but most users switch to Google soon after taking the computer out of the box.
The Internet is so successful because it offers everyone the freedom to choose, rather than take what they're given. Forcing a search engine onto someone just isn't going to work.
Still, it's reasonable to expect people to experiment with different methods of searching. I'm among those who have found Google to be the least annoying.
You can load up computers with all kinds of stuff, but when it comes to customer acceptance, there are no guarantees. I wonder how many PC sales staffers and techs have been asked, "How do I get rid of the little yellow guy?"
It boggles me as to why they don't invest some of the capital that they seem to be throwing around lately into improving their core product, search. Improve the product, and people will come back.
Seems elimentary to me, why with all the talent they have working for them, they can't seem to figure this out is utterly beyond me.
These recent partnerships are about the only thing saving them from a crash and burn. Although in my opinion it's still going to happen, this is just delaying it.
[edited by: martinibuster at 4:12 pm (utc) on Oct. 5, 2006]
[edit reason] See TOS. [/edit]
[edited by: martinibuster at 4:08 pm (utc) on Oct. 5, 2006]
[edit reason] Edited off topic comments. [/edit]
They shouldn't force their... services onto unsuspecting people... They must be desperate.
Every search engine has a similar deal with PC makers and software vendors.
It's not a move of desperation, it's business as usual. Nothing desperate or unusual about it.
It's not a move of desperation, it's business as usual. Nothing desperate or unusual about it.
Agreed.
What some call desperation, I see as a checkbox in the "WIN!" column as HP's a pretty decent selling brand. The bundling with the PC thing has been going on for years and Yahoo has to get some of them before Google and MSN lock them all up.
[edited by: martinibuster at 4:08 pm (utc) on Oct. 5, 2006]
