Ubuntu is switching the default search from Google to Yahoo!
Those of you testing out the development version of Ubuntu Lucid should notice a change in Firefox very soon. The default search provider for new installations of Ubuntu Lucid (10.04) and upgrades will be Yahoo! and not Google. Canonical have struck a revenue sharing deal with Yahoo! which generates income for the company. This revenue should help pay the wages of Ubuntu Developers employed by Canonical, and support the infrastructure required to develop and build the distribution.
So when using the search box in the top right corner of Firefox on Ubuntu, you’ll be taken to a Yahoo! results page rather than the old default Google one. If you are upgrading to Ubuntu 10.04 and you had Google as your search provider (the previous default) then this will change to Yahoo!. You can of course change the search provider, this is merely the default for Lucid. Doing so will mean your search revenue won’t go via Yahoo! to Canonical. That’s your choice, clearly.
In addition, the browser ‘start page’ – that is the page you see initially when you open the browser – will reflect whatever the default search provider is. So in the top right, if you choose ‘Google’ you’ll get the Google start page, and conversely if you choose ‘Yahoo!’ you’ll get the Yahoo! start page when you first open the browser. Again, you can change the start page to be blank or use some other search provider. These are just the new defaults.
It’s possible that additional search vendors may be added to the list – Bing anyone? – but it seems that for Lucid there will be at least the two mentioned above. Users who already run Ubuntu and are upgrading to Lucid, but don’t use Google won’t notice a difference, but they’re welcome to manually switch to the new Yahoo! search provider if they want to financially support the Ubuntu project that way.
No doubt this will cause some consternation within the Ubuntu community, as many find changes to “their” browser to be tantamount to breaking and entering their home. Indeed when these things were previously messed with there were a few heated complaints and reports of broken-ness.
Hopefully the dialog on this change will remain civil and, well.. lucid.
203 Comments
Ahh the dial-up days. Tears well up as I reminisce.
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Ya…who?
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Right, but some, from millions of Ubuntu users? That’s still a niche community, and one that probably doesn’t take its browser search settings lightly.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Why couldn’t they make a deal with Google. I’m pretty sure Google would gladly do it.
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Why are you guys burying him? It is a scam. Canonical knows that everyone will just change it back. Why would millions of Linux users suddenly accept Yahoo as a search provider?
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Maybe try replying next time, O Great Commenter.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
I don’t really understand why people use yahoo… anyway, w/e not exactly making my life difficult…
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dammit i’m a noob at threads I guess
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Let’s see. The typical Ubuntu user is defenitely more experienced than your average windows/OSx user. Don’t get mad. I said TYPICAL. If you even know about Ubuntu and Linux, you’re probably comfortable in any OS… Not only will they quickly switch back to Google, but probably have a script to change it in the command line, just for fun.Go Cononical! Get paid!
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Canonical took the money, but an option to switch to google is left for the users, it takes about 30 seconds to switch, so everyone is happy
! Whats the big deal, anyway?!
regards
google does not care about it
This comment was originally posted on Digg
We’re talking about Ubuntu here. Not millions of people.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! don’t you see what’s happening!! its the starting of open sourced operating systems and browsers getting wet into the evil vagina of marketing. i can’t believe it!!! not ubuntu!!!
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Whatever makes Ubuntu $$$ | I’m fine with that !!
I’m torn … I love google but I just wished they really embraced their moto "don’t be evil" whole heartedly!
This comment was originally posted on Digg
on Karmic-Koala with Fresh Install i got default search engine is “Ask.com”
So, other than changes in default search engine & start page
we will aslo see changes in google ads ?
Canonical has been out to make money since it was founded in 2004 and has been marketing Ubuntu ever since.
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This is from 2007 ""At its core, Ubuntu is a free platform for delivering open source software, certified and guaranteed to work, and with each release we strive to enhance the experience of our strong and growing user base of over 6 million people," said Jane Silber, Chief Operating Officer, Canonical UK" http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-desktop710
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This is from 2007 ""At its core, Ubuntu is a free platform for delivering open source software, certified and guaranteed to work, and with each release we strive to enhance the experience of our strong and growing user base of over _6 million people_," said Jane Silber, Chief Operating Officer, Canonical UK" http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-desktop710
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It looks like the old days, but Google and thus have a huge market, why not like the change back.
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what are you even talking about? did you read the article? the headline?
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Wow. This may free up 0.000003% of Google’s load balancers.
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2010: The Year of Using Yahoo! to Search the Internet on the Linux Desktop
This comment was originally posted on Digg
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Actually Canonical only gets paid for users that don’t switch back to google, which will be a small fraction, meaning its a pointless exercise and only pisses off google and other users. If they got paid outright to do this, that would be revenue. This is just cononical being pwned by m$
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Google knows us better…
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Ubuntu is the newbe distro so maybe most users wont know how to change it
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http://search.yahoo.com/ < http://google.com=http://au.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkzZ_LWB …
This comment was originally posted on Digg
You people are all missing the big picture here. Yahoo search SUCKS! Even Bing is better than Yahoo and its one of the worst search engines available.
Alsta-Vista and Lycos search were 1000 times better than Yahoo will ever be.
thats a little step backwards that will result in little to know revenue as most users of Ubuntu are Savvy enough to change it back to a search engine that works.
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Way to slap the hand that fed you.
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"We’re talking about Ubuntu here. Not millions of people." Moron.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
So, what is the worth of this deal?
How much money per search do they get?
I think it’s a bad deal in a long run. Most people anyway use Google search engine and will continue to do so because they are used to it and it’s simply better. More and more people will be using Chrome browser, I already do.
And generally it’s not good to worsen the relationship with Google, more so because they are more friendly towards Linux than Yahoo!/Microsoft are.
we got to getem from the inside man… everythings going according to plan.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Yaa…who? What? Ohh Yahoo….that thing from back in the 1990s. That’s still a thing?
This comment was originally posted on Digg
I’m tired of companies deciding for me which search engine, browser, or toolbar I should use. Let the user pick at boot up and may the best one win. Then we will really see who the best company. On Windows Bing has only done well because it’s conveniently difficult to switch away from and is being shoved down your throat by the OS, Live Apps, and browser. Ubuntu should be about choice and flexibility not corporate greed that’s what’s made it so great until now.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Interesting
This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed
So basically….. Microsoft is funding Linux, which it says is the biggest competition to Windows…?Interesting. I think we need to know how much this deal is worth in dollars first.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Windows 7 looks good.Mac OS X Snow Leopard looks even better.Gnome is archaic.KDE is for kids. (What the **** is Edutainment?)
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Hm. A linux distro subsidized by Microsoft? Yahoo is just bing now, after all.
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Google knows too much about them? How did Google get all this info about them? I can guarantee it wasn’t without the user’s help. I can also guarantee Bing and Yahoo know just as much.
Speaking of which. Yahoo is Bing, or will be soon. Yahoo, the 2nd rated search engine is being supplanted by Bing, a 3rd rated search engine and Ubuntu is jumping all over that. Makes sense? Not to me.
And all of them look about the same when I set my desktop background to black, auto hide all task and menu bars, and turn off all window decorations and animations. Sometimes the only reason I even know which OS I’m on is the slight differences in the Firefox navigation toolbar.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Interesting… I switched from Yahoo to Google right around the time that I switched to using Linux full time.
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Yahoo! offered more money.
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Seeing as to how most people who use Ubuntu are tech oriented people, I’m willing to bet most of them will change it when they get pissed off at the shitty Yahoo! results.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Linux newbies are generally fed up windows gurus. Changing a default search engine is still the same process.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
indeed same here
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WHAT??!! THEY CANT DO THIS!! THIS IS….okay nevermind. I can’t do it with a straight face.
This is news huh?
Wonder if it will stop the random freeze ups I get with Inkscape…
More backing the better I guess, as long as it some how improved the actual quality of the software. Oh, and Slackware. That is all.
No native yahoo "toolbar" please.
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