27 July 2010 | Author: O. Gaywood Media Optimiser

Yahoo! Japan agrees deal with Google

Despite the close partnership of Microsoft and Yahoo! - which will see Yahoo! start to integrate Bing's search algorithm and ad platform in September this year - Yahoo! Japan has agreed a deal with Google to use its search results and ad service. In return, Yahoo! Japan will provide Google with its data.

While this move may seem to go against the recently agreed deal between Carol Bartz and Steve Ballmer in July last year, Yahoo! Inc is only the second biggest shareholder of Yahoo! Japan, while the leading shareholder - Softbank Corp - has no ties or agreement with Microsoft, so instead chose to go with Google.

Yahoo! currently holds the majority of the search market in Japan, with 53 per cent, while Google owns 38 per cent - so together the pair will control almost all of the market. Just three per cent of Japanese searches are currently made using Microsoft's Bing engine.

Although the Google Japan blog has now confirmed the deal, it is thought that Microsoft may look to stop it gaining approval from regulatory bodies, after it successfully stopped Google and Yahoo! striking up a partnership in America in the same way.

The Yahoo! name in China is also owned by another company - the Alibaba Group - so there's a chance that they too may choose a different partner than Microsoft.