Yahoo! Becomes Default Search In Ubuntu 10.04

By , Published January 26, 2010

The default search engine in Firefox for Lucid will be changing from Google to Yahoo!.

Rick Spencer from Canonical, who posted the announcement earlier today on the Ubuntu developer mailing list, assured users that this won’t affect their ability to change search provider should they so wish.

One area of possible contention; users upgrading from Karmic to Lucid will have their search engine changed to Yahoo!

The deal between Canonical and Yahoo will see the revenue raised from the partnership go towards continued funding of the Ubuntu platform.
Also in the announcement was the somewhat less dramatic change – the Ubuntu homepage that greets users in a stock-install will now use whatever search engine a user has set in Firefox. Previously it used Google.
You can read the full announcement here.
Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

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  • Mohan

    Not a big deal, it can be easily changed, I don’t know why people have the knickers in the bunch!

    • https://launchpad.net/~davidnielsen David Nielsen

      a) this was not discussed with the community, it was unilaterally decided to enter into this deal. This from a company that has hired people who apparently do nothing but yell the word community (Jono, I am looking at you). This is just not the way contributors are used to being dealt with nor should be dealt with.

      b) This change affects upgrades, the web browser is one of the most important applications on the desktop (so important that Google promotes it as the only application on the desktop). Changes to it are thus to be expected to have a larger impact than other changes.

      c) Yahoo! is plainly an inferior search tool to Google in very real ways, meaning Canonical just signalled that they will make decisions without consulting you, decisions that affect you regardless of your current default. Simply because that decision brings them an income.

      d) For many of us, this is the last straw. Let’s enumerate their sins of late:

      * Requiring copyright assignment for all projects without a good reaons, without giving a promise in return to only use this to harmonize licensing under OSI terms. Instead they basically demand full ownership. See: http://lwn.net/Articles/359013/

      * Tying their proprietary Ubuntu One platform to the Ubuntu desktop. The client side might be open but the server side isn’t. I readily admit I hold open source companies to a higher standard here. I think we all should. It’s not about refusing Canonical an income, in fact I am of the opinion that they could make a lot more money if the platform was allowed to evolve openly. I have no interest in running my own U1 server but I do have an interest in seeing the source code that handles my files and settings. I would happily pay for this service provided it was open.

      * Intentionally creating an inferior user experience for petty cash.

      It is about going around the community’s back and screwing contributors over. Personally I’ve just about had enough.

      It feels like being punished for believing in Canonical when they said pretty words about community, openness and a desktop worth using. I am at the very least done contributing till this situation is resolved.

      Either this is Canonicals project in full, to do with what they please or it is a community project. If it is a community project then they have to consult the community of contributors like equals and propose changes, not just announce them. If it is Canonicals baby, then they should stop acting otherwise.

      • http://twitter.com/symodhcn Symod J. Urich

        OMG! I CAN’T BELIEVE SOME PEOPLE!

        Who the hell cares about the default search engine? Changing the home page is the first thing most people do anyway, and changing the search engine requires *one* click.

        If this helps Canonical, I’m keeping it actually as the default search engine, that’s the least I could do considering how great Ubuntu has been for me.

        I understand you might not like it, but you don’t have to. Nor do you have to use it. Go use Debian, or gNewSense, if Ubuntu doesn’t meet the level of freedom you’re aspiring for, but please don’t make this out to be a BIG DEAL when it’s not.

        God, just because Yahoo had some failed negotiations with Microsoft about being sold makes them a Satan’s search engine somehow, while Google is this angel who will bring salvation. Face it, both of them are multinational mega corporations, and if Canonical can milk one of them more than the other and put that money to good use, I’m okay with that.

      • Anonymous

        your taking this to seriously, canonical is a company and companies need to earn revenue and make profits doing this deal allows them to do this without charging us. next thing, who the f*ck cares if ubuntu one is propietary the reason why canonical released ubuntu was to have a opensource os that was easy to use and guess what the os is still open source and easy to use. your not FORCED to use ubuntuone if you dont like it delete it; if you dont like yahoo make it google its not hard. if you hate ubuntu and canonical use debain

        • _diablo

          I’m pretty sure that’s what he said he’s going to do :)

      • Aubrey

        David, I think you have amply demonstated your suitability to move to Debian now. I really think your idea of “the community” and its day to day involvement in decision-making about the distro is far more like the old Debian model (you know, the one that debates and delays changes and releases for months and months) than anything remotely connected with Ubuntu as I understand it.

        All the best.

      • Anonymous

        David, you might want to calm down with the finger pointing exercise, you make it sound as if Canonical is selling it’s soul to the devil,

      • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

        Dude! Ubuntu can’t run forever on Mark’s deep pockets. It needs to survive on it’s own. Yahoo deal is just one aspect of self-supporting ecosystem which the community needs to understand. Would you like to pay for Ubuntu one fine day? NO!

        OTOH just change the default search engine to Google or move away from Ubuntu. You seem like an idealist who doesn’t understand how industry works.

        * With reguard to http://lwn.net/Articles/359013/ :
        AFAIK even GNU asks the same( http://gcc.gnu.org/contribute.html ). It asks to give the ownership of the code or put the code in public domain.
        This is well understood. Some fine day you change the license of your code, then it has to be removed from the open source softwares.

        *Intentionally creating an inferior user experience for petty cash.
        Example? Facts without proof is myth.

        * Tying their proprietary Ubuntu One platform to the Ubuntu desktop.
        sudo apt-get remove –purge ubuntuone-client

      • Anonymous

        Dave,

        I think you may be blowing this up a little. This is a tiny change to a default policy that was originally discussed at an Ubuntu Developer Summit over a year ago. It is a change that can be disabled with two clicks for those who don’t want to use Yahoo! and the general community reaction has been largely “meh”. It is a decision made in conjunction with our friends at Mozilla, we have announced the decision early in the cycle on our public mailing list, we ran our design team past it to ensure there were no regressions in interaction experience and we gave the Community Council and Technical Board a heads up. I have also spent as much time as I can responding to concerns.

        Yes, the change is there to generate revenue, but revenue to continue the success of Ubuntu and invest in further resources. This tiny change does not change the community infrastructure, extensive open governance and infrastructure across bugs, blueprints, burndown tracking, public meetings and all the other ways in which we develop Ubuntu. It is merely a planned feature that will help support the project.

        Jono

  • anon

    hey, if its gonne help keep funding ubuntu, so be it

  • http://www.facebook.com/Robert.M1984 Robert Moreno

    I agree, if Ubuntu has to make money by doing something as small as this then so be it. We need less arguing and more getting things done.

  • yellerKat

    How much did MS offer for Bing?

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Hahaha!!

    • Haymaker

      They didn’t need to. Yahoo is powered by Bing.

      • http://ndrw.me AndrewNoNumbers

        Is it? I never figured out who helped who in that merger. I thought Yahoo was more proficient in search engines.

        • Anonymous

          Microsoft wanted Yahoo’s help to make Bing but Yahoo, thinking that there’s no way Microsoft could do search engines very well, declined. They didn’t want to give up their #2 spot, basically. Now, the deal is kinda confusing. I know they struck up some kind of deal that allows Microsoft to have access to Yahoo’s search engine, but I’m not sure to what end. I do not believe Yahoo is powered by Bing though.

          At least, that’s how I understand it went down.

  • Anonymous

    doesnt microsoft own yahoo? doesnt this mean that ubuntu is funded in part by microsoft? *head explodes*

    • http://orkutcidio.deliriocoletivo.org Peterson Espaçoporto

      no, it doesn’t ;) it tried to, though.

      • Yi Sun-sin

        They don’t own Yahoo, but they made an agreement… on the search engine part !
        http://www.pcworld.com/article/187175/eu_antitrust_unit_to_examine_microsoftyahoo_deal_by_feb_19.html

        • Anonymous

          I’m pretty sure that only means that Microsoft wants a peak at Yahoo’s code for future development of Bing. And I’m sure they’ll learn a lot too. It seems like a long time ago, but I still remember when Yahoo was the search giant and Google was just an upstart.

          • Connor

            It’s a little more than that, Yahoo is to be powered by Bing for at least the next ten years. So yes, Ubuntu users will be using Microsoft’s search engine, but it is better than Yahoo’s current one anyway.

            Of course this deal is just a first step in a takeover bid, by the end of this deal, Yahoo won’t exist.

  • http://orkutcidio.deliriocoletivo.org Peterson Espaçoporto

    First thing I’ll change. Good for Ubuntu, however!! =D

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Likewise… which i feel somewhat bad about since Ubuntu will make money from this but Google search is Google search! Nothing else like it!

  • http://www.webupd8.org Andrew

    I’ve read this will also affect upgrades – if the user doesn’t change the default search provider (meaning that if he still uses the default – it will automatically switch to Yahoo but if he changed the search for Wikipedia, nothing will be modified).

  • http://twitter.com/WolfHook Paul

    I’ve always preferred Yahoo’s aesthetics to any other search engine. I actually defaulted to Yahoo search for a month or so and didn’t miss Google at all.

    I have considered switching to Yahoo recently, their mobile interface is very nicely organised and their results are more than sufficient for what I need.

  • Anonymous

    *blehhhh*
    I had to use Yahoo a few days back and realized how much I disliked late 90s technology. It’s the first thing I’ll change, and I know it’s easy, I’m just disappointed there couldn’t be a special deal with Google made (yes I know there’s nothing to bargain with as it’s default anyways but still…)

  • Zero

    Such a blame…
    Canonical knows what is the best search engine (and automatically what is the best for the users) but, anyway, sell this space… What is the next? A deal to put AIM on default installation? Google is much more “open-source friendly” than Yahoo…
    Let’s check what is the next step of Canonical to “conquer the world”

  • http://twitter.com/kinesthesia kinesthesia

    Google does the same thing to be included as the default search engine at the moment. No big deal, and more money for Ubuntu development. <3

    • Anonymous

      Although I agree this should’ve been discussed with the community, there’s a bigger issue at hand.

      Wasn’t Canonical involved in the development of ChromeOS?

      • Anonymous

        Why should the community be involved? It’s a funding decision that users can change easily. It doesn’t modify the code in any way, and won’t have a strong impact on end-user experience.

        • Yfrwlf

          It’s one small bad impact though. Hardly anyone uses Yahoo to search the net. Sorry but it’s the truth. :P

          If Ubuntu continues to make choices which do end up annoying users to get a few extra bucks, that could end up being a problem for them and could drive Linux users to other distros, even the simple “take Ubuntu and make a few little changes” distros, just to give users a better out-of-the-box experience.

          Not a big deal, no, but still.

  • Anonymous

    It’s small things like this that need to be done in order to make Ubuntu (more importantly Linux) more mainstream.

    • http://ndrw.me AndrewNoNumbers

      Switching from an 80% share search engine to a 10% search engine is going mainstream?

      • Anonymous

        I meant the advertisement.

      • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

        As everyone said above “Just change it”. It isn’t so hard.
        If you can’t even change a search engine, then i fear you need to first learn how to use computers

  • http://www.tannerhelland.com/ Tanner H

    I spend all day performing internet searches as per my job (research scientist), and I have to say – Yahoo is way better than people give it credit for. I switched from Google to Yahoo in April 2009 and have seen zero reasons to go back to Google. Ad-Block Plus in Firefox makes the Yahoo experience even better.

    If you haven’t used Yahoo for a long time, it’s worth trying again. They are on-par with Google in every way for text searches.

    On topic: I’m VERY happy to see Ubuntu negotiating this deal. Great news for everyone involved!

  • Connor

    What? Was Excite’s offer too low? I haven’t used Yahoo since the 1990s, and with good reason. There’s a reason why Yahoo is always looking to tie in with someone’s else in search, they’re crap.

    But I guess Google are done with Ubuntu now, and the money has to come from somewhere.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I hear AltaVista were also considering putting a bid forward…

  • jol

    it hurts me not to see these changes to the community

  • jol

    sorry for my bad English

  • http://twitter.com/symodhcn Symod J. Urich

    Also, one thing people failed to mention, is that as of now, changing the search engine in ‘chrome’ (that box next to address bar, that you choose your search engine from), automatically changes the search engine on the default home page as well.

    So basically, if you dislike Yahoo, it takes one click to change it back to Google, both on the default search and the home page.

    So please stop bitching for no reason. Thanks.

  • http://www.1916home.net/ 1916home

    Ive been using StartPage for a while now as a search engine. They dont keep data about my searches like Google does. And in a day or two StartPage is supposed to release their new proxy search engine so no one can track you through cookies or whatnot.

    • Anonymous

      I was curious about it but I can’t load the page. It uses a bad compression method or something. :x

      //EDIT
      Just had to add www to the start of the URL. Odd that it’s required.

  • Brian

    I admit this move does make me wonder. As an Ubuntu user I’ve noticed a steady increase in commercial ventures and poor decisions being made on the open source side of Canonical. Of course I could be wrong. But the primary reason I have always chosen Ubuntu is how less commercial they’ve always been compared to the other big distros.

    • http://twitter.com/symodhcn Symod J. Urich

      You do realize they made money through the Google search on home page as well? How is this any different? Just because it’s Yahoo now? Point is, they’ll make more money in the most painless way for the end-user.

      • Brian

        I very much doubt that they’ll make more money. Since a great majority of users will switch back to Google and not even use Yahoo!, I know that I will.

  • Ernesto

    Doesn’t Google require you to have Ubuntu to build chrome OS? Isn’t Google a huge, huuuuuge, backer of open-source? Doesn’t google have many ties with linux? Doesn’t the majority of Ubuntu (and linux) users use Google? I’m surprised Google didn’t take a revenue sharing offer… I really hope they were offered.
    First the iPhone switches to Bing, now Ubuntu switches to Yahoo. NOTHING MAKES SENSE ANYMORE!

  • Anonymous

    First the iPhone going to Bing (in 4.0) and now Ubuntu is switching to Yahoo. Google will soon be loosing some passing trade…

  • Hamad Al-Absi

    I want ubuntu 10.4 include the codec of multimedia directly without internet connection because some of the persons who love ubuntu havn’t Internet connection in there computers .

    • http://bogdan5844.wordpress.com/ Bodo

      Good luck with that. Licenses and royalties make that a pretty tough business to go in court with

      • Anonymous

        or you can make a community version with all that and flash and stuff installed for these countries! lol downloaders really dont care about the copyright crybabies [M$ type]!

    • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

      Hamid,

      Many people want that. The problem is that copyrights and patents are very complicated things and even vaguely defined.
      Some countries don’t recognize Public-Domain, some countries (India) don’t have software patents. Licensing and copyrights and patents law differ all over the globe. Distribution of software marred with patents are inherently difficult.

  • nomono

    I am afraid (well, actually I am not – that is my only hope) it is not possible. If Canonical wants to keep the Firefox branding (fox logo, name, etc.), they cannot make such a decision. It is Mozilla’s issue as long as they use their branding. If they want to switch to Yahoo, they have to use unbranded versions, such as Iceweasel. Otherwise, Mozilla or Google can sue them (it is breaking their deal) and I bet they would win!

  • Anonymous

    I can see why they would move away from Google. although I don’t agree with the decision. It smacks of posturing and has little to do with the needs of the users and definitely not the wishes of the users. I’m disappointed with the chose of Googles replacement. Yahoo is no “cleaner” than Google, none of these company’s are.

    note: I make a delineation between “user” and “community” the “community” is an elitist clique and the users are the masses of people running ubuntu in all of it’s flavours. The users if asked would choose Google, we were not asked. If we were asked we would not choose Yahoo!

  • Louis

    I think this is terrible given yahoo’s human rights history. For an operating system supposedly built on freedom, taking back-handers from a company like yahoo is scandalous.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo#Criticism_and_controversy

    • Anonymous

      This is the first valid complaint about the deal I’ve seen.

  • BinGooHoo

    Why don’t they just leave it blank and let you choose your default search engine the first time that you launch Firefox?

    • Anonymous

      Because BlankHomepage.com doesn’t pay very much for having lots of visitors.

  • mrweenus

    epic fail canonical. epic fail.

  • one of them

    “i don’t like google”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l96tB6WMymo

  • Anonymous

    Bad idea.

  • David

    So Bing dressed up as Yahoo will be the new default search engine for Ubuntu’s new LTS…

  • noooo

    FAIL!!!! How the ********************* could this happen?

    yahoo suck so bad! i don’t wanna have that set as default! Thats called downgrading, which i’m totally against!

  • http://dylantaylor.wordpress.com/ aliendude5300

    Yahoo SUCKS. They don’t even like Linux, and they do SO MUCH less than Google for the open-source community. Name one time Yahoo helped make something open-source. This is a very disappointing change.

  • Anonymous

    google : yahoo :: madonna : lilly allen
    I believe both are equally good, i mean the search engines!