Bing to be default search on HP computers

Microsoft has extended its deal with Hewlett-Packard to make Bing the default search engine on HP PCs worldwide.

According to reports, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Wednesday that the agreement will also make Microsoft's MSN site the default homepage on HP PCs.

Previously, the partnership only covered consumer PCs sold in the United States and Canada, and was effective for 12 months. The extended deal will now cover both business and consumer PCs worldwide, and will span three years.

This deal could help boost visibility for Microsoft's relatively new search engine, launched in May last year.

According to ComScore statistics, Bing has been gaining market share since its debut, capturing 10.3 percent of the search market in November last year. Yahoo dropped to 17.5 percent from 18 percent, while Google maintained its lion's share of 65 percent.

The search giant has helped maintain its visibility by paying for Google to be the default search engine within Mozilla's Firefox browser. In 2006, the amount paid out accounted for US$56 million of Mozilla's US$66 million revenue.

Dickson Seow, Google's Southeast Asia head of corporate communications, said in a response to ZDNet Asia: "We welcome competition that helps deliver useful information to users and expands user choice. Having competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space--it makes us all work harder, and at the end of the day our users benefit from that."