Samsung, Yahoo Sign Search Pact

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Yahoo and Samsung held a press conference today where they announced and signed a contract that will make Yahoo the official search provider on all Samsung phones in the future – whether they be running Android, Bada or anything else. The “strategic global partnership” includes search, but also Yahoo apps like Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Maps, etc. etc.

The deal will begin in May 2010, with all devices shipping after that coming preloaded with the Yahoo “experience”. Obviously, Samsung’s upcoming Android superphone, the Samsung Galaxy S, is a pretty interesting Android phone that a lot of people have their eyes on and unless it secretly is released in the next four days, it looks like it’ll be included in this new deal.

Terms of the contract weren’t announced, but you’ve got to imagine that Yahoo is paying Samsung a considerable amount of money for the right. Mobile search (and computing) is huge right now. Samsung is already is the world’s largest tech company in the world, their phones are popular in their native South Korea, and they’re making in-roads in the Western world, both with their featurephones and smartphones.

Google can’t be happy over the deal. As a few of you commentators have pointed out here, Android is open-source, so manufacturers can do whatever they want with it. However, Google is a business, and presumably, they plan to/are making income from Android via the mobile search on Google. If nobody is making Google mobile searches on Android, then that’s lost income.

Kenny Lee, Samsung VP of Content Planning, says:

We want to provide our customers with the best possible services designed to enhance their mobile experience. Our relationship with Yahoo! continues to grow and benefit our global consumer base, who wants access popular Yahoo! services from their Samsung phone.

Western users may prefer Google over Yahoo, but Yahoo ranks highly in Asia on terms of popularity. Don’t kid yourself – this is a huge deal in Asia, and in the rest of the world if Samsung’s mobile popularity keeps growing.