New screenshots are making their way around the web that show Yahoo mobile search without the “powered by Bing” branding at the bottom. Business Insider has contacts close to the situation that add more depth and insight.
While both Microsoft and Yahoo have not officially commented on any changes, it’s a well-known secret that Yahoo isn’t happy with their current partnership with Bing. The CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, is a former Google executive and many have speculated that she wants to get Yahoo out of its deal with Bing and possibly enter Yahoo back into the search engine business.
Bing has been powering desktop search results for Yahoo since 2009 and even though mobile search results weren’t part of the deal, “powered by Bing” still appeared on the bottom of mobile search pages. Yahoo and Bing’s deal is currently active and will be until 2019 unless something changes.
At the moment this isn’t proof of any changes but it is curious. Business Insider has a source that points out that even without “powered by Bing” appearing on the bottom that search results are identical to those that are powered by Bing.
If the partnership ever ended losing Yahoo would be a large blow to Bing’s overall searches. While over 30% of desktop searches in the US are powered by Bing, over one third of those searches come through Yahoo.
