| Competition has been stoked in the mobile search | | | | popular. |
| engine optimisation (SEO) sector with the | | | | Greg Sterling of that Land said that "this switcheroo of |
| announcement that Google is to replace Yahoo as | | | | the T-Mobile 'default' relationship doesn't necessarily |
| T-Mobile's default engine. | | | | help Google or harm Yahoo in a major way". |
| While T-Mobile USA has replaced Yahoo with Google | | | | "Consumers have more options to access the content |
| as its default search on mobile phones such as RIM | | | | and services they are loyal to on smartphones, rather |
| BlackBerrys, some Yahoo-based services will continue | | | | than simply accepting and using the carrier-designated |
| to work on T-Mobile, including Yahoo Mail and Yahoo | | | | services," he added. |
| messenger. | | | | However, he continued that there would no doubt be |
| A Yahoo spokesperson stressed that T-Mobile and | | | | some incremental loss or gain in terms of search |
| Yahoo would continue to work together on content | | | | query volume and related clicks. |
| services such as Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo | | | | The alliances between search engines and mobile |
| Finance, Flickr and weather on T-Mobile's Web2Go | | | | carriers have become an important part of the |
| portal. | | | | website optimisation (SEO) landscape, according to |
| However, the portal itself - which provides search | | | | Search engine optimisation practitioners. |
| services to non-smartphone internet users - will now | | | | For example, research published earlier this year by |
| be powered by Google. | | | | the Internet Advertising Bureau revealed organisations |
| Despite this, some website optimisation experts have | | | | that combined mobile and website marketing were |
| claimed that default search portals will mean | | | | able to radically increase brand awareness with a 150 |
| increasingly less as smartphones become more | | | | per cent higher click-through rate online. |