OPEN SOURCE OUTFIT Canonical has posted an
announcement on its mailing list that its Ubuntu Linux default search
engine will shift to Yahoo as part of a revenue sharing deal.
Rick Spencer, leader of Canonical's desktop team, announced the
Yahooo deal yesterday. The deal is scheduled to take effect in April and
means that the FireFox web browser will default to using Yahoo's search
engine under Ubuntu.
"I am pursuing this change because Canonical has negotiated a revenue
sharing deal with Yahoo and this revenue will help Canonical to provide
developers and resources to continue the open development of Ubuntu and
the Ubuntu Platform. This change will help provide these resources as
well as continuing to respect our user's default search across Firefox,"
he wrote.
Spencer continued, "This won't in any way effect the ability of a
user to choose and use the search provider of their choice. It's
literally two easily discoverable clicks to change this setting, a
simple matter of switching to that search provider in the chrome by
clicking on the icon and choosing the desired provider."
While the agreement was reached with Yahoo to help Canonical increase
revenue it might not be welcomed by the majority of Ubuntu users, many
of whom might end up switching to alternate search engines, negating the
benefits of the deal.