January 9, 2009 by Jay Smith
Microsoft have pulled off what many are describing as a significant coup in the ongoing search engine war by managing to convince Verizon to use their search engine to provide online searches from their mobile phones.
The decision went in their favour despite the fact that Microsoft search lags behind Yahoo in terms of user numbers and, like everyone, is light years behind the kind of usage that Google enjoys. The move was officially announced by Steve Ballmer on Wednesday though by then the deal was already common knowledge.
The importance of this shouldn’t be underestimated. Verizon Wireless are gaining steadily on market leader AT&T and many predict that they will become the United States’ leading mobile network sooner rather than later. There has been speculation for more than a year as to who would land the contract with the company.
The fact that Verizon have in effect chosen a partner who lie a distant third in their field has led many to believe that Microsoft sweetened the deal in some way. Details of that are not available as of yet, though it would not be out of character for a company that are far from shy about splashing the cash when required.
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