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Google just got replaced by Microsoft Bing in a big search partnership

Microsoft is handing over parts of its display advertising business to AOL, the company announced Monday afternoon.

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As part of the deal, AOL, which is now owned by Verizon, will make Bing its default search engine instead of Google for the next ten-years. The switch will take place January 2016. 

This is pretty big news for Google, which lost its partnership with Mozilla to Yahoo late last year, causing its largest drop in search marketshare since 2009.

Larry Page and Satya Nadella
Google CEO Larry Page; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Business Insider/Justin Sullivan/Getty

Right now Google is the default search for Apple's Safari process, but there's been talk that Apple could ditch for Bing or Yahoo too

Not that this is necessarily all doom and gloom for Google. It's unclear whether the company made a bid to renew the partnership — Google had no comment when Business Insider reached out. 

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Google must pay a percentage of the  revenue it generates from offering search on AOL's site, which may have made Google less eager to renew the deal. 

In Q1 of this year, AOL pulled in about $116.4 million in revenue from its search properties. Given that number, a source with knowledge of the situation indicated that Google would only have made "tens of millions" from an AOL search deal.

AOL Search Revenue
AOL

That's compared to the $11.93 billion in search revenue Google saw from its websites — which include  distribution deals — in Q1 of 2015. 

On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.

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