Millions of mobile phone users in Europe should soon start seeing a lot more of Google’s properties. The search giant has secured a search deal with Deutsche Telekom, which owns T-Mobile.
Google will now be T-Mobile’s default search provider in Europe, and that means its engine will be accessible through both the standard T-Mobile homepage and an "idle" screen. It’s hard to imagine Google won’t see a bump in market share as a result.
Yahoo, meanwhile, may see a corresponding decline. A Mobile Business Briefing article reported, "It appears that with the current partnership, Google has displaced Yahoo!, which announced a strategic alliance with T-Mobile ‘including mobile search’ in February 2008."
And making this an even more solid victory for Google is the fact that the search giant already has a deal in place regarding Deutsche Telekom’s fixed-line business.
In any event, Rainer Deutschmann, Senior Vice President of Mobile Products at Deutsche Telekom, reasoned in a statement, "Google is best placed to deliver the demanding product requirements we have for our customers . . . . and we expect synergies in the future as we continue to release innovative convergent solutions."
No details concerning lump sum payments or revenue sharing plans have been disclosed at this point.