Google has secured a deal to provide search results and related advertising to Yahoo Japan, Japan's most popular Web site, the two companies said Tuesday.
When implemented it will mean Google's technology will be responsible for the vast majority of searches done from home and office PCs in Japan. The two companies taken together handled 90 percent of the 4.5 billion queries sent from PCs in homes and offices in Japan, according to April data from NetRatings Japan.
The deal flies in the face of a 2009 agreement between Yahoo and Microsoft to use the latter's Bing search engine. The deal covered Yahoo's main U.S. site and many of its international services, but Yahoo Japan wasn't covered because Yahoo doesn't hold a majority stake in the company. Softbank, an early investor in Yahoo, holds the largest stake in Yahoo Japan with the U.S. company owning just under 34 percent.
Yahoo Japan said it doesn't expect the Tuesday agreement with Google to affect the financial relationship between it and Yahoo Corp.
For Google the deal represents a further boost for its Japanese operation, which has lagged Yahoo Japan since the launch of Google's Japanese-language search in 2000.
Martyn Williams covers Japan and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com