Canonical/Yahoo revenue deal; Yahoo is the new Ubuntu search default

The competitive landscape on search/browsers/os/user-engagement is getting fascinating:<p>Mozilla, who doesn't have an operating system/distribution and therefore isn't the last team to touch an app, has a revenue distribution deal with Google by making them the default search engine of the firefox browser, which has a 25th percentage or so share of the browser market.<p>Said Revenue Sharing deal, is now being undercut by Canonical, the Operating System Vendor, that uses the Firefox Browser, but who has now entered a revenue sharing deal with Yahoo, who uses Bing! as their search back-end. Bing! of course, is owned by the company that Canonical seeks to upend with its 2-3% market share in the Operating System Market. I wonder how Mozilla will feel about their "Branded" firefox browser having it's search engine (and revenue) reprogrammed to point at Yahoo by default? I wonder if they'll force Canonical into switching over to Ice Weasel?<p>Google, has decided to create their own browser, and is now working on their own OS (a linux distro). Google has the ability to do a full stack integration (OS/Browser/Search) - But is weak in everything but Search in terms of market share.<p>Apple, meanwhile, who has a both a Operating System, and Browser, and is now becoming increasingly competitive with Google, may be turning to Bing! for a revenue sharing deal on the browser. Apple has no search engine, has some (but not overpowering) share in the browser/OS market.<p>Finally, there is Microsoft, who, continues to move along with Dominant Operating System and Browser share, and, slowly, increasing their small share (in the teens) of search (though mostly at the cost of Yahoo).

So obviously only for the money. Seriously, Ubuntu users -- people who willingly changed their operating system to get away from a crap product -- are not the same people who would choose Yahoo search over Google search. Good for Canonical to make some money (so long as that means more Ubuntu), but lame.

I wonder how much money they'll really get out of this. Even Ubuntu, the most user-friendly Linux (and please don't try to argue otherwise; that's not the point of this comment. Pretend I said "a very user-friendly Linux" if you have to), draws a pretty tech-savvy audience. I think the vast majority will make at most one search with Yahoo, realize they're using an inferior search engine, and then switch.

I don't think it's an accident that this announcement comes far away enough from the next release for there to be time for Google to make them a better offer. Even if that doesn't happen in the next release, this may be Canonical's way of showing their hand.

Not while Yahoo! actively collaborate with the Mainland Chinese Government to imprison Hong Kong citizens without even the courtesy of a warrant request - I could not look my grandchildren in the eye - I call them out as collaborators and frankly they should be shot or at least interned without trial - Yahoo are dead to me.

Solidifying my view that advertising is a plague, and it must be destroyed. It is the causal agent in so many anti-consumer decisions. Google or Yahoo or Microsoft or any of their agents (e.g. Canonical) need only do well enough not to piss off their current subscribers. To the extent that they manage that, they can encrappen their product with incorrect or useless shit in order to bring more revenue. You will get much better results if you pay for quality.<p>It kind of makes me embarrassed to work for one of those companies I decried. At least I can rationalize it by noting that our results are the best and we're really bribing other actors to not make decisions that harm their users.

I'm surprised by this, given Google and Ubuntu's previous relationship with Goobuntu.<p>Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but Google and Canonical do appear to have had some form of commercial relationship.

Ubuntu users hopefully are savvy enough to change the default search engine, one funky thing about firefox and ubuntu is that an extension is installed by default and can only be disable not removed by most users.

How does this help the users? Canonical is selling their user base to yahoo at the cost of user experience. This is kinda disappointing and shady.

I wonder if they considered Bing. In a few years, that's what it will be, just with sanitary purple branding to keep people's heads from exploding.

Noooo :(

If it's making Canonical some money, that's great. It is easy enough to change the defaults to whatever you want after you install. It's a shame they couldn't cut a deal with a search engine that's actually useful, like Bing, though.