

Why Yahoo’s Not Going To Steal The Search Default For iPhone Away From Google - sprremix
http://searchengineland.com/yahoos-iphone-away-google-189322

======
spikels
I found the idea hilarious. Yahoo should stick to what it does best: holding
shares of Alibaba!

EDIT: I like how this has been picked up by a fashion industry rag[1]. Great
PR effort!

</snark>

[1] [http://www.fashiontimes.com/articles/5151/20140417/yahoo-
rep...](http://www.fashiontimes.com/articles/5151/20140417/yahoo-replace-
google-apple-ios-devices.htm)

------
Tyrannosaurs
In the short term this seems unworkable - Google have a better product and,
let's not forget, deeper pockets (being the default search provider being
something Google pay handsomely for).

In the longer term I could see Apple quietly partnering with Yahoo! to see
whether anything can be done - possibly something with product tweaks Apple
might want which Google won't provide - but that feels 2 - 5 years away
minimum.

There feels an implicit assumption here that Apple will do whatever it takes
to shaft Google but that feels highly questionable - Apple and Google don't
hate each other as much as is sometimes made out. Google happily support their
apps on iOS because that aligns with their core mission - information
gathering and indexing. Apple happily have Google's apps on iOS because that
supports their core mission - a better experience for those using Apple
products. Google is the default search provider on iOS and OS X. Google staff
happily and openly use Macs. These aren't the actions of mortal enemies.

Even iOS vs. Android doesn't feel the thing it once was. Apple got the top of
the market and the associated revenues and margins, Google got the rest of the
market and the associated data and both have workable, seemingly sustainable
ecosystems. Sure they probably both want more but for now they seem relatively
content with what they have.

------
kryptiskt
I don't think Apple would willingly switch from Google, but they need an
alternative in the back pocket so they can't be held hostage if Google starts
to make onerous demands (like quit the patent warring against Android) as
conditions to renew the deal.

------
IBM
I've been trying out Bing for a month now and it's pretty much equivalent to
Google for me. I search less and less on search engines already and what I do
search for, Bing has been able to deliver. The only thing that made the
transition difficult at first was the UI of the search pages on desktop. For
mobile that won't really be an issue and I think Apple could easily default to
Bing.

Losing iOS users to Bing/Yahoo would be terrible for Google just because of
the demographics of iOS users. The Oracle trial revealed how much more Google
earned from iOS than Android, and that probably hasn't changed much. Google is
already experiencing margin compression because of the broader shift to
computing on mobile devices, losing the most valuable users would only
accelerate that.

~~~
Oletros
> The Oracle trial revealed how much more Google earned from iOS than Android

Oracle trial didn't show that, that was made up figures

And, by the way, perhaps Bing is good in USA, but here in Europe is really bad
compared to Google search

~~~
IBM
The figures weren't made up, they were estimated based on a settlement offer
made to Oracle prior to the trial.

[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/mar/29/google-
ear...](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/mar/29/google-earns-more-
iphone-android)

~~~
Oletros
Those figures are made up, they don't have anything to do with how much Google
earned from iOS or from Android and they aare explained [1]

[1] [http://marketingland.com/no-google-doesnt-make-four-times-
mo...](http://marketingland.com/no-google-doesnt-make-four-times-more-off-the-
iphone-vs-android-9017)

~~~
IBM
>The figures weren't made up, they were estimated based on a settlement offer
made to Oracle prior to the trial.

We have different definitions of what "made up" is. The estimate The Guardian
made was based on the court document which is linked to in the article.

~~~
Oletros
Wrong, The Guardian couldn't estimate anything because the court documents
didn't were about what The Guardian made up.

Past damages were not a royalty percentage, 2.5 billion were not mobile
revenue.

So, they made up their figures with wrong assumptions, wrong revenues and
wrong damages

------
higherpurpose
If they want to _remain_ in the search business then they definitely need
their own search engine. Ever since they made the "partnership" with Bing,
they've lost a lot of their market share to Bing, because people think "why
not just use the original, instead of the clone?"

I don't know why Yahoo hasn't bought Blekko yet, which last I checked (a while
ago) was better than DDG, for example. It probably won't even cost them that
much.

------
Nux
Yahoo ... Anyone here still using any of their services in even a semi-serious
manner?

~~~
replax
Yahoo Mail is still by far the largest worldwide mail provider, counted by
active users.

Moreover, in e.g. Japan, Yahoo is the start page of almost every PC, in
addition to being the commonly used weather, maps, mail and news web pages.
One does really see everything through a very distorted lens from the own
perspective.

yahoo is still far more relevant than one might think!

~~~
maldeh
Keep in mind that Yahoo Japan is not wholly owned by Yahoo! Inc. Similar to
its shares in Alibaba, The global company holds a minority stake in Yahoo JP
(about ~35%, which puts it in second place on ownership [0]).

[0]
[http://ir.yahoo.co.jp/en/holder/status.html](http://ir.yahoo.co.jp/en/holder/status.html)

------
Zigurd
Apple has pretty high capital spending, but hasn't translated that into an
ecosystem as attractive to customers of iPhone as Google's. Apple has easily
got the money. What they need is a plausible plan to match the results Google
gets from that effort.

Having a competitive search/geodata suite is such a high-value goal, I'm a bit
surprised that none of the also-rans have been turned around and re-
capitalized to really go after Google. Nor have any of the regional players to
partnered-up for out-of-region expansion. With the exception of DuckDuckGo
there's nobody competing on features.

So it makes sense for Yahoo to give this a try. Having killed their own search
engine operations, they are going to have to be very clever about how to catch
up.

------
whoismua
I don't get this: Yahoo uses Bing so why would Yahoo be able to pay more or
offer better service than Microsoft? Seems just like a middleman to me.

Maybe it's more palatable to IOS users since the "evil empire" is not involved
_directly_?

