The deal involves Acer, which was recently listed by Gartner Dataquest as the 3rd biggest notebook vender in the world during the second quarter, distributing a co-branded Web browser toolbar, and will enable Acer's customers to access a number of Yahoo services such as Yahoo! Mail, sports and music updates, news information, as well as Yahoo! Messenger through links provided by a pre-loaded start page.
This news corresponds with a similar deal brokered between Google and the software manufacturer Intuit earlier in the week to include search and advertising in their Quickbooks accounting software application. This move is part of an effort to help them attract small-business advertisers who want to access the market of the 3.7 million existing Quickbooks users. In a conference call quoted by Reuters, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said:
"We became convinced that there was a way to potentially add a million or more online advertisers to these large networks - particularly Google's network." Mr Schmidt also stated that, "to solve [small-business owners'] problems, it seemed like a natural partnership between [Google and Intuit], a natural next step in how our businesses evolve".
Previous efforts by Google to increase the number of search users, and thereby potential advertising targets, includes a string of deals with industry giants such as Dell computers, software producers Adobe Systems, and the wide reaching News Corp. Yahoo! already has a number of other existing deals, including deals with some of the major broadband communications providers in Britain and the United States.
Sue Feldman, analyst with IDC stated that, "they are all trying to build their spheres of influence". She also commented that, "anytime you see a company like Google, Yahoo, or MSN do a deal like this, it's because they want to get their ads in front of more eyeballs...being the default on Acer is great for them, because people rarely change default settings. That means they'll have a built-in audience."
Although the financial details of the deal have not been announced, this latest partnership between Yahoo! and Acer appears to make good business sense for Yahoo! as the new Acer PCs will encourage users to use Yahoo! services like the search, mail, finance and news services, and so it should help to let the internet search service expand on its existing advertising reach.
