Yahoo and Ubuntu Deal on search Engines

01/28/2010

Among the changes to Ubuntu 10.04 is that Google will lose its place to Yahoo as the Firefox standard search engine. Canonical attributes it to financial reasons.

On the Ubuntu developers' mailing list, Rick Spencer announced "two small but important changes" to Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx." Ubuntu's Firefox browser will now show a choice of search engines in the upper right corner of the browser, at least for Google and Yahoo. Other potential candidates such as Amazon, Wikipedia and Ask.com don't have the same deal set for them.

The change accompanies another decision by Canonical, that Yahoo will become the default search engine. The switch also applies to upgrades for users who previously had Google as the default.

The reason is simple: Yahoo will pay Canonical for each search using their engine, income from which will then flow into Ubuntu's further development. Spencer emphasized in his announcement that users who prefer a different search engine can enable it with two easy mouse clicks.

( Kristian Kissling)