“Wall Street gave Yahoo stock a big boost today — largely due to the stellar quarterly performance of China’s Alibaba, in which the Silicon Valley Internet giant has a big stake,” Kara Swisher reports for Re/code.
“While a lot of the chatter about Yahoo’s latest financials seems focused on increasing display advertising sales — which went up two percent in Yahoo’s first quarter — sources inside the company say the big focus for truly turbocharging revenue will be an aggressive effort being led by CEO Marissa Mayer and Adam Cahan, its SVP of mobile and emerging products, around search,” Swisher reports. “And, according to sources, the lodestone of two internal projects aimed at building a viable mobile search engine and monetization platform is to convince Apple to make Yahoo the default search engine on its Safari browser on the iPhone and iPad.”
“In a piece titled ‘The Google-Free iPhone,’ my BFF M.G. Siegler pointed out the obvious: ‘Apple is directly responsible for billions of dollars being sent Google’s way via search on its devices. This will only continue to increase. It’s believed that Google makes more money off of iOS devices through search than they do through Android devices. In other words, Apple is indirectly subsidizing a portion of the major war against itself. Yep,” Swisher reports. “Yep. That thought has clearly occurred to Mayer.”
Tons more – click through for all the details – in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hey, if you really want to wage thermonuclear war, you have to actually detonate a nuke here and there, you know?
Something impactful like this sure beats watching a bunch of lawyers dick around in courtrooms around the world for years to no great avail.
Leave Google as a non-default option in iOS Safari and that’ll avoid any blowback as experienced with the Apple Maps debacle (which itself could have been avoided with a simple “beta” label).
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” and “Bill” for the heads up.]
Heck, just buy Yahoo! and be done with it.
Uhh…I would be pretty weirded out by the fact that Apple owns Yahoo Answers. The people on that site…are…interesting, and it wouldn’t be a good image for Apple to have.
First order of business… kill Yahoo Answers
Apple should just make DuckDuckGo it’s default search engine. Then there’s no stated favoritism, ulterior motives; Apple will be protecting it’s users from their searches being tracked. Doing a good thing.
correction: “perceived” favoritism
problem with my suggestion: DuckDuckGo would probably go down in one day.
Agree with mdn take but unfortunately this would be a worse experience for the end user.
Typo…Marissa…
I have no idea why so many down votes for birdy. The one thing Google is truly good at is search. Yahoo is pathetic. Don’t get me wrong… I want Google (and Samsung) to die in a grease fire, but Apple does what’s best for it’s customers, and at this point taking away Google search would be bad. I wish it weren’t true.
Then Apple’s competitors would viciously use this as a marketingpoint. Yahoo search sucks. In fact, who uses Yahoo anyway?
I do. Google sucks because its almost entirely advertising and not search results now. That’s not to mention Google is creepy and spies on everyone.
I would also argue that many that use Google do so by default and not by any conscious choice.
Same can be said for Apple Maps now. 😀
I agree that Yahoo isn’t great as a search engine, but I’ve used Bing (in protest of Google) for 2 years and RARELY have to double up a search with Google.
If Yahoo could polish up their search, I’d be on board with this.
Google Search was great until they got dollar signs in their eyes. It is a pale shadow of what it once was.
I’m not so sure about this. Yahoo ripped off Dashboard and called it Yahoo Widgets, is rumored to be turning Yahoo TV into a competitor to Apple TV, and was even thinking of buying Tizen, and calling it Yahoo OS. I’m not comfortable with this company. They could easily betray Apple…not to mention that they should stay in the 90s, and let the modernists do all the futuristic stuff.
Not if Apple buys Yahoo and invite Malissa to be one of the Directors
But it’s sorta like buying Google. Both companies managed to slavishly rip-off Apple, it’s just that Google did it better. And if I’m not mistaken, Yahoo’s search results are powered by Bing, which is, of course, Owned by the Big MS. Apple should stay far away from Yahoo, and Yahoo should stay far away from the 21st century.
I switched my iPhone to Yahoo a long time ago and my iPad when I got it.
Me too. Yahoo is the search of choice on all my iOS devices. Google do know evil.
Missing from the summary is the fact that Google pays Apple $1 Billion a year to be the default search. Also Yahoo search is powered by Bing and Microsoft gets a cut from that.
Apple should let the 3 bid on the default and get as much as they can for it if they’re not going to develop their own or buy Yahoo (just over $36 Billion market cap).
Where did you get the idea that Yahoo is powered by Bing? All this time, I thought that Yahoo was its own thang? You know what I’m sayin’?
If I’m not mistaken, I think Bing is actually Yahoo’s default search engine.
Yahoo is powered by Bing, but Mayer is working on a homegrown search solution for mobile. Read the full article.
Yes Grasshopper
Do a search on Yahoo search and look at the results. On the bottom of the page it says, “Powered by Bing”.
There was a whole long story with Ballmer wanting to buy Yahoo. It got nasty and the compromise was Microsoft powering Yahoo search.
In the past Yahoo has used Google, Inktomi, and others.
Yahoo bought Inktomi and between 2004-2009 they were their own search engine.
Marissa Mayer has expressed interest in parting ways with Microsoft and returning to being their own search again.
I’m not sure exactly what the contract is with Microsoft, but Yahoo is about to get a ton of cash (billions) from its sell of its stake in Alibaba when that goes public.
So if Yahoo could end its contract with Microsoft and get the default position on iOS, and spend more money on marketing they could get some significant market share away from Google.
True, but they still attempted to buy Tizen for their Yahoo TV system, as well as a proposed Yahoo Phone. Yahoo indirectly supported proven criminals Samsung by doing this. Apple and Yahoo makes about as much sense as Apple and Samsung.
Do you have a source for “attempted to buy Tizen”? I’d think that would be pretty hard to do considering it’s an open source project within the Linux Foundation with Samsung and Intel on the steering committee, and it’s sole purpose is to create an alternative to Android where it’s directed by association members (12 of them) as opposed to being ruled by one company (like Android essentially is by Google).
Apple needs a default search engine, and unless they’re going to buy or create one (either which I wouldn’t mind), which do you suggest they go with?
Google who betrayed them recently and competes directly.
Microsoft who betrayed them previously and competes directly. Or Yahoo, who’s never betrayed them and doesn’t have any real direct competition of significance (it’s hard to claim Yahoo TV is significant).
Microsoft, Google, Yahoo… which is the lesser of the evils? Who will bid the most?
“I thought that Yahoo was its own thang?”
Used to be – for a long time. Has been using Bing for a few years.
Are you snapping your fingers while saying that?
I need Yahoo search to undergo a design overhaul before I’ll use it.
I use Yahoo search on my phone and Mac. It is okay but doesn’t provide as many hits as google. Most times that is okay but sometimes it does goof up.
Better than a visit to the card catalog system :/ I miss the smell of those cards in the slide out drawers 😳yahoo! Works Fur Me. She’s HOT too. Bonus.
Brilliant !
Good Move 99
Already switched to Yahoo. Just too bad that BING drives the engine.
Exactly. And we know full well that lazy Microsoft pads out its Boingo results with none other than GOOGLE results. And there we are back at the start again. 😛
We are like stuck. I wish there was a way to integrate duckduckgo on Safari search.
It is I am using it for a year or more. Just “google” it!
Oh I see what you mean. I was looking for the pop up to select it as default. Instead its a button on the bar.
Yahoo… isn’t that the company that tricks users into installing web cam software that their employs can use to watch what you are doing? Uhm…yeah. No, I won’t be switching to Yahoo anytime soon.
I am sick and tired of seeing the Yahoo FUD on this article. Yes, they could improve on their search engine, but overall, they are a good company for Apple to partner up with. And as for the liars who are spreading made-up BS about Yahoo, well, they are yahoos themselves. Yahoo never attempted to buy Tizen, and Yahoo Widgets has existed since 1997 as Konfabulator. Nice try, Yahoo haters.
I knew when I clicked the link to get here that I’d see her on that big red ball.
The Marissa Meme. She’s ‘on the ball’.
‘A google free iPhone’ – I like that, I like it a lot!
Just do it apple, just change the default search to yahoo in an iOS update.
Surely it isn’t that difficult?
Of maybe apple is looking at Bing or even better develop their own search engine – now that is really cool!
More like Yahoo Phone. They tried to buy Tizen back in 2013 after Samsung failed to make it go anywhere. It seems to me that they are using it for Yahoo TV, but we all know it’s going to morph into an iPhone wannabe. And don’t get me started on Yahoo Widgets.
What marissa Mayer needs to do ASAP is fix the diabolical new flickr layout which is a mess, we want the old layout back. I hate the way the new flickr layout have been forced upon us and marissa needs to get her ass down and fix this problem. And while I am at it if she wants to cosy up with apple so much then why not get her coders to fix the apple flickr app on iOS 7. Priorities people
I’d prefer they made duckduckgo their default search engine, but whatever. ABG (Anything. But. Google.)
BTW, am I the only one who wants to be reincarnated as the giant red ball Marissa is posing on?
Agreed – also startpageDOTcom is good and should be an option.
There is a hack for Safari where you add an entry to your /etc/hosts file that equates searchDOTyahooDOTcom with the duckduckgoDOTcom IP address – then set your default search in Safari to Yahoo.
I did that but replaced Bing (which I’ll NEVER use) with DuckDuckGo in Safari
Eventually Apple will have a search alternative as good and better than Google search. Just a matter of time.
I could deal with that! I believe they have the server power at this point. They certainly have some database brainiacs over at their Filemaker subsidiary. It would take some considerable effort and a new attitude toward searching. (Old news: The search on Apple’s website is appalling).
A lot of people make money with google adsense/adwords. can they do the same with yahoo?
I see MDN missed the big red ball photo…… well okay I missed it too. With Yahoo trying to part its way from Bing, this would make sense from Yahoo point of view. Of course, Apple may have it’s own search up and running by the time that happens. Marissa vs Google. Grab some popcorn, that might get interesting.
I vote for Duck-Duck Go as the default search engine.
I might read the rest of the comments, just as soon as I get tired of looking at that photo of Ms Mayer…
Dear Apple,
Please don’t dump on us like you did with Maps.
I still use Google daily for speed, ease, depth of information, and most of all, Street View.
What happened to the Microsoft Bing/Yahoo deal? What was that about? Refresh my remembery.
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