UK Yahoo Portal Switches to Google, Not Bing

August 28, 2009 · Print this article, Visited 272 times, 1 so far today

UK site Connected Internet this week found that BT Yahoo, which is an online portal for BT Broadband users, and is run by Yahoo, is using Google Search now, rather than Yahoo search, which has been in place.

The move is obviously a bit strange, considering that Microsoft and Yahoo have a famous search/advertising deal in the works, which would see Yahoo Search in general being replaced by Microsoft's own Bing technology (with Yahoo still running the front-end). So why would this ISP-based Yahoo offering go Google?

According to Connected Internet, BT owns 35% of the broadband provider market share in the UK. "Unlike in the US where Microsoft and Yahoo have respectable shares of the search market, the situation in the UK is very different with Google totally dominating the UK search market with over 90% of the market," says Connected Internet's Everton Blair.

"By replacing Yahoo’s search engine, BT are hoping that overall search usage will increase by providing users easy access to the #1 service in the UK," adds Blair.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft steps in on this situation, and other possible situations like it. Om Malik at GigaOm notes that Yahoo is also powering Verizon and AT&T in the US and Rogers in Canada.

On BT Yahoo, Yahoo is reportedly still running image and video search.

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