Java Will Now Set Yahoo As Your Default Search Engine

News
By Michael Justin Allen Sexton
published

During Yahoo's annual shareholders meeting, the company announced that it has entered into a partnership with Oracle to make Yahoo the default search provider for Java.

Although Google is the world's most popular search engine today, the company is certainly not running unopposed. Bing, AOL, Baidu and Yahoo are all trying their best to take a larger piece of the search engine market.

Though Microsoft's Bing can rely on the popularity of the Microsoft ecosystem of products to help it grow and expand, companies like Yahoo instead need to rely on strategic partnerships to help grow their business.

To that end, Yahoo has signed a new partnership with Oracle to make Yahoo the default search provider of Java for the next three years. The Java installer has already been updated and will now by default set your search engine, your default homepage, and your default New Tab page to Yahoo.

This only applies to users of Google Chrome and Internet Explorer, however. If you are wondering why it's not true of Firefox, it's because Yahoo already has a separate agreement with Mozilla to make Yahoo its default search provider. The Yahoo/Mozilla partnership was signed back in November 2014 and will continue for at least a five year period.

According to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, the partnership with Mozilla has already been profitable for Yahoo and has dramatically increased its search distribution. Undoubtedly, this Oracle deal will help increase Yahoo's share of the search engine market further, but it might also be a bother to some users who don't know how to change their default search engine back to Google and don't like the experience of using Yahoo.

Fortunately, for those who really don't want to use Yahoo, they can simply just uncheck a box and avoid all of this entirely.

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Michael Justin Allen Sexton
Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
27 Comments Comment from the forums
  • SinxarKnights
    Wow that is unfortunate. I was just thinking the other day when I had to install Java x64 how I like there are no toolbars or stupid garbage like this in the installer. Too bad they sold out.

    Java had an already bad rep, this is only going to make it worse IMO.
    Reply
  • Achoo22
    companies like Yahoo instead need to rely on strategic partnerships to help grow their business
    Why is the tech world so backwards and dishonest that instead of growing business by offering superior products at competitive rates we are trying to sneak our way into user systems, virus-style? Shame on you, Yahoo!.
    Reply
  • jessterman21
    Um, come on guys. This is 100 times better than installing the Ask.com toolbar and setting your homepage to Ask.com. Or installing McAfee Free.
    Reply
  • expunged
    I guess this is an upgrade, It used to install Mcafee.....
    Reply
  • bochica
    Yahoo! is already starting to annoy me with their broken updates to their email, and now they want Java to help them piggy back their search engine? It was bad enough Java tried to piggy back the Ask! Toolbar through their installs. We don't need another crappy search client.
    Reply
  • pasow
    why cant we just have installers that install what they were downloaded for in the first place...

    if you want to piggy back on software instillation, make it an opt in not an opt out. sneekly changing users settings like this is how you piss off your average computer user.
    Reply
  • alidan
    companies like Yahoo instead need to rely on strategic partnerships to help grow their business
    Why is the tech world so backwards and dishonest that instead of growing business by offering superior products at competitive rates we are trying to sneak our way into user systems, virus-style? Shame on you, Yahoo!.

    because anymore you say ill google that when you want to search... if it wasnt for practices like this, no one would use yahoo... or at least not enough to even cover operation cost.
    Reply
  • Saberus
    If I wanted to use Ya-hoopdie, I would already be using it. Yahoo's just doing anything to try and cling to their former success, but like many others, they stagnated while at the top thinking their place was secure, and now they're trying to avoid paying for that hubris.
    Reply
  • spdragoo
    Well, this should be a non-issue for me, as Yahoo is already set as my default homepage/search provider. And I won't have to worry about making sure the stupid Ask toolbar is unchecked..
    Reply
  • scolaner
    Yahoo! is already starting to annoy me with their broken updates to their email, and now they want Java to help them piggy back their search engine? It was bad enough Java tried to piggy back the Ask! Toolbar through their installs. We don't need another crappy search client.

    Couldn't agree with you more on the email issue. I've found it virtually unusable in its current state.
    Reply