14 DAY TRIAL // It's done, Yahoo has completed the switch to Bing technology to power its searches in the US and Canada. The deal announced a year ago has come to fruition as all Yahoo searches in the two countries now wear the 'Powered by Bing" logo.
"First let me say, wow, what a week! As I hope everyone saw our post from last week, Yahoo! began transitioning certain back-end functions for Yahoo! Search over to Microsoft’s search platform," Shashi Seth, Senior Vice President of Yahoo Search Products, said.
"Well, I am proud to announce that the transition of organic search between Yahoo! and Microsoft is complete," he wrote.
"Yahoo! Web, Image, and Video search experiences on both desktop and mobile devices are now powered by the Microsoft platform in the US and Canada (English), with more markets to come," he added.
For most users, the change should be almost impossible to spot, Yahoo looks and feels the same as it did before. In fact, the only visual hint is the "Powered by Bing" text that shows up at the very bottom of the search results page, where very few users will venture.
Obviously, the results themselves will be different, since Bing rankings differ from Yahoo's, but it would take a very trained eye to spot this.
While organic search may have been the biggest step, the 'fusion' between the two products is not complete. The next step will be to merge the paid search platforms, as Yahoo will be using Microsoft's ad network for search ads from now on.
There are also several other markets where the transition is yet to take place, arguably, none as large as the US though. There are also places where the transition won't take happen, with the special case of Yahoo Japan, which chose to go with Google, standing out.