San Francisco — For the longest time, the default search provider in Ubuntu Linux has been Google, but this is going to change in the next release — Rick Spencer of Canonical, the group behind the most-popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, disclosed today that it has forged a revenue sharing alliance with Yahoo, which will become the default search provider in the Mozilla Firefox browser in the upcoming 10.04 version (aka “Lucid Lynx”) of the operating system, scheduled to release April 29.
Absolute terms of the alliance have not been disclosed, but as part of the deal, the in-built Firefox Web browser in Ubuntu will be configured to use Yahoo as the default search engine upon installation.
Spencer, the leader of Canonical’s desktop team, shared the information via a public mailing list, where he said:
“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,” he wrote. “This change will help provide these resources as well as continuing to respect our users’ default search across Firefox.”
The overall essence of it all is that the default search provider in the little Firefox search box will be changed from Google to Yahoo!. In addition, Firefox’ default home page will respect the user’s choice of default search provider.
The new default search engine will become functional in the upcoming version of the release “as soon as reasonably possible” and will be ready in time for Ubuntu 10.04, which is scheduled for release in April, according to Spencer.
However, the change will include both the search provider in Firefox’s toolbar and the default start page. Users will still be able to promptly change the default search service by clicking the search provider icon in Firefox and selecting the search service of their choice from the drop-down menu. In order to simplify it for users to change completely, Canonical is customizing the browser so that changing your default search provider will also change your start page if you have not already set one.
“Canonical is unusual among major commercial Linux distributors in the sense that it does not sell an “enterprise” or “pro” version of its software. In an effort to make this approach sustainable, Canonical is experimenting with a number of different business models, including commercial support for end users, subscription-based Web services, and integration support for hardware makers. In the announcement about the search engine change, Spencer says that Canonical’s partnership with Yahoo will help to fund the ongoing development of the distribution.”
The move comes as a result of a more profitable revenue sharing agreement, indicating that Yahoo outbid Google, who is — or was — the default search provider. Canonical currently gains a portion of the revenue from Google searches, so the change means that Yahoo offered a better deal.
The move is an interesting one for both Canonical and Yahoo, as search partnerships have become increasingly common. Yahoo is attempting to do whatever it can to gain search market share, and Ubuntu is a popular version of Linux.
Nevertheless, the move has stirred-up a bit of controversy among some Ubuntu enthusiasts who are concerned by the adoption of a default that does not represent the general preference of a majority of the users. In practice, the ease with which the default can be changed largely mitigates any potentially detrimental implications.