Re/code reports that Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer is planning an attempt at persuading Apple to switch its default iOS search engine from Google to her company’s own offering. According to Re/code’s sources, Mayer has built what she hopes will be a convincing arguement in favor of the change.
Yahoo! current powers the weather and stocks apps and Notification Center widgets found in iOS 7 as well as a few Siri functions, such as sports, but lost out on the chance to power Siri’s web search to Microsoft’s Bing. Both Yahoo! and Bing are included as optional search engines in the Safari browser, but the default selection is Google.
Yahoo! was said to be in talks to Apple executives last year about increasing the company’s presence on the iPhone, though it seems not much came of those discussions.
Mayer is in a solid position to make her case to Apple, though, and Re/code reports that she has already spoken to several executives, including Jony Ive, who is now Apple’s head of software design and a friend of Mayer. Still, it’ll be a tough sell, considering how ubiquitous Google has become these days (after all, have you ever heard anyone say “I’m going to Yahoo! it”?).
