Google usurps Yahoo as T-Mobile USA default search

T-Mobile USA has instituted Google as the default search engine across its handsets, replacing longtime search partner Yahoo. eWeek reports that the T-Mobile USA/Yahoo search agreement at the core of the operator's Web2go browsing experience has expired, although Yahoo stressed that the two firms will continue to partner on services including Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger--in addition, Yahoo news, sports, finance and weather information will remain prominent on the Web2go portal. A Yahoo spokesperson also took a shot at Google, stating "With more than 80 carrier partnerships for our award-winning mobile search experience, including the recently announced partnerships with O2 in Germany and Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan, we are displacing our largest search competitor as the trusted partner of choice."

T-Mobile USA introduced Web2go in late 2008. In addition to web search results intuitively grouped around the user's inquiry, Yahoo oneSearch offered consumers news, information and content, including Flickr photos, as well as relevant ringtones, wallpapers, games and other premium content available for download in the T-Mobile store.

The new T-Mobile USA/Google agreement follows less than a week after news that the Motorola Backflip, the first AT&T smartphone based on Google's Android mobile operating system, will hit stores with Yahoo as its default mobile search engine instead of Google's own search tool. Most if not all previous Android devices launched in the U.S. have arrived at retail with Google installed as the default search option, although Motorola earlier offered Chinese consumers the option to select Baidu as their primary search service. Google declined comment: "[The Backflip] is not a Google-branded product and, therefore, product inquiries should be directed to AT&T and Motorola," the digital services giant told BusinessWeek.

Mobile phones in the U.S. accessed Google Search more than any other website between January and September 2009 according to data released by The Nielsen Company late last year. Google now accounts for more than 9 percent of all mobile web page views in the U.S., per browser development firm Opera Software's most recent State of the Mobile Web report--Google's mobile search portal far outpaces Yahoo (4.3 percent of all page views) and Microsoft's Bing (just 0.03 percent). Opera adds that search-portal related views make up 13.5 percent of total U.S. mobile page views, with each unique user averaging 39.9 search-based page views per month.

For more on the T-Mobile USA/Google search pact:
- read this eWeek article