San Francisco: When AT&T releases its first phone with Google's Android operating system this month, the device will be missing a key ingredient from Google: the default search engine.
Yahoo! will be set up to handle internet searches on the phone, called the Backflip, though customers can still choose to use Google if they want to. The device, built by Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola, is due tomorrow.
"We have a long-standing relationship with AT&T and more than 80 carrier partnerships around the world for our award-winning mobile-search experience," David Katz, a vice president at Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo, said in an e-mailed statement. "Mobile search continues to be a focus for investment and innovation."
The deal is a victory for Yahoo, a distant second to Google in the search market, which aims to make inroads with mobile-phone users. Google handles two-thirds of US internet queries, and its software is the default search engine on the iPhone.
While the Mountain View, California-based company helped develop the Android operating system, that software is open-source, so phone makers can use it any way they like.
Google declined to comment on the Backflip. "This is not a Google-branded product and, therefore, product inquiries should be directed to AT&T and Motorola," the company said.
