As if its current search market share is not already low, Yahoo’s search share might suffer some more setbacks due to failed toolbar deal with two PC manufacturers. The WSJ is reporting that Yahoo has failed to renew its agreement with both HP and Acer to make the Yahoo Toolbar as the default search tool on their computers.
What’s worst for Yahoo is the fact that HP has already signed up with Microsoft for their Live Search Toolbar, while Acer have quietly reached a deal with Google sometime in October last year.
Quoting a reliable source, WSJ reports that the failed deal would cost Yahoo a good 3% of the U.S. market share. But even with that lost in search share, Yahoo still beats Microsoft’s share although it would put Yahoo far behind Google’s search share.
However, no matter how much you want to put this event in a positive light, a loss is still a loss. Recent data from Hitwise showed that Yahoo’s search market share decline to .68% from February to March 2009. You can just imagine how this would affect Yahoo’s search market performance in April and in the months to follow if it would not do something to cushion the effect of the failed Toolbar deal.