Jul 23, 2011 10:11 GMT  ·  By

Yahoo has announced that it has transitioned more of its local search properties over to Bing, switching from its own search engine technology to Microsoft's. This is another step in a big agreement between Yahoo and Microsoft for Bing to power Yahoo Search.

The two companies have reached a deal a couple of years ago in which Microsoft engaged to provide Yahoo with search technology and infrastructure, as well as power search ads, in return for a cut of the ad revenue Yahoo gets from its search engine.

The move started in the US, where Yahoo switched over to Bing last year and the two companies have been working to do the same in other countries as well.

Earlier in the year, Australia, Mexico and Brazil joined the list of countries where Yahoo had transitioned over.

Granted, it's not that big of a list, there were only the US and Canada on it at that point.

But things are moving, Yahoo has now transitioned six more countries to Bing.

"We’re excited to share some more news today as we move ahead with additional markets," Yahoo announced.

"In fact, just this week Yahoo! transitioned certain back-end functions for Yahoo! Search over to Microsoft’s search platform in New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela," it said.

Notably, Yahoo was unable to convince Yahoo Japan, which is a stand alone company in which Yahoo has a large stake, to switch over to Bing.

Instead, Yahoo Japan went with Google, giving the company a de-facto monopoly on web search in the country.

"As always, our top priority is to provide a quality transition experience and we are working closely with local teams to understand the specific needs of each country," Yahoo said.

"We will continue to keep you updated as we expect to transition additional countries across Europe and Asia in the coming months," it added.