Yahoo to persuade Apple to choose its search over Google's: Report

Yahoo Inc's Chief Executive Marissa Mayer is working on a plan to persuade Apple Inc to ditch Google as its default search engine in favour of Yahoo, technology news site Re/code reported, citing sources within Yahoo.

Mayer's effort is in advanced stages, with a detailed pitch already prepared for Apple executives, the website said. Yahoo senior vice president of mobile and emerging products, Adam Cahan, is working on the effort too.

Mayer, a former Google executive, has managed to get support from some Apple executives, including longtime acquaintance Jonathan Ive, according to the Apple Insider blog. "Mayer has supposedly wrangled support from a few Apple execs including longtime acquaintance Jony Ive," Apple Insider said.

Design head Ive exerts enormous influence over strategy and products in engineering and design-heavy Apple.

Google search, which has been the default search engine in iOS and powered Apple's Safari Web browser used on iPhones and iPads for quite some time, pays Apple about $1 billion per year for traffic driven to its servers and subsequent ad network, Apple Insider said, referring to the same rumors.

Apple's decision to stick with Google's services over the years also reflects a desire to maintain a familiar user experience, the blog said.

Yahoo on Wednesday again posted anemic quarterly revenue growth as the Internet company's advertising business continues to lag its rivals, nearly two years into Mayer's comeback effort.

Mayer is trying to revitalize Yahoo's business, revamping many of its Web products, but its ad sales business continues to struggle while rivals such as Google, Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc continue to post strong, double-digit revenue growth.

© Thomson Reuters 2014