Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer says Yahoo would love to become the default search engine for Apple’s Safari browser. She expressed interest in Safari during Yahoo’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday.
Mayer recognized the significance that getting Yahoo in front of Mac, iPhone and iPad could have for the search engine, referring to Apple’s default web browser as “one of the premier search deals in the world if not the premier search deal in the world.”
While Google renewed its search partnership with Apple in 2010, the contract is reportedly ready to expire in 2015. As Apple seems to be weaning itself off of Google services – Google Maps and YouTube are no longer built-in iOS apps – it’s possible that Yahoo, or another company could slip in as Apple’s search default for Safari on the OS X and iOS platforms.
“We’re in the search distribution business and anyone who is in that business needs to be interested in the Safari deal. The Safari users are among the most engaged and lucrative users in the world and it’s something we would really like to be able to provide,” Mayer told RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney. “We’ve worked really closely with Mozilla to ultimately bring to their users an experience that they designed and that they feel really suits those users and we would welcome the opportunity with any other partner to do the same, particularly one with Apple’s volume and user base.”
