Yahoo demanded Microsoft make Bing 'better' in latest search deal

Sean Cameron

Bing

Though the players in the search engine game are somewhat far apart in terms of market-share, competition is fierce nonetheless. Bing, the underdog, has been pushed by Microsoft into various different fields, with varying effects. Of all the partnerships sought by Redmond however, that with Yahoo is one of the most enticing, as well as the most lucrative.

Today’s Yahoo, under Marissa Meyer, is different than yesterday’s. Keenly aware that not even Yahoo is sure what it exists for anymore, Meyer’s key role has been to pursue purpose for the former web giant. And part of that purpose has been to assert itself in the world once more, most recently by making a number of demands from Microsoft, as reported by Business Insider.

Key among these, according to Meyer, was to make Bing ‘better’. Given that Bing is quite thoroughly baked into many Yahoo products, this is hardly surprising. Indeed, in the most recent deal negotiated by Meyer, Yahoo no longer uses Bing for 100% of its searches, this being reduced to a mere 51%. The company may even be pursuing its own search option, though only time will tell how successful this may be.

Bing

Microsoft and Yahoo have quite a storied history together, with Redmond memorably attempting to purchase Yahoo outright in the latter half of the 2000s, but being blocked from doing so. If current happenings are anything to go by, then this is merely the next step in a fractious break-up. With Windows 10 ahead of it, Microsoft is confident once more in its own abilities, and Yahoo is keen to enter the upper echelons of tech once more.

What the next chapter in this story will be is, for the moment, impossible to tell; but with two such colorful characters, it cannot help but be interesting.

Do you think Bing needs improving? Let us know in the comments below.