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Microsoft Signs 10-Year Deal For AOL To Use Bing’s Ads & Listings

Google loses deal it held since 2002, but AOL matters far less than it once did.

Danny Sullivan on June 29, 2015 at 6:06 pm

At AOL Search, Google is out, Bing is in. Microsoft and AOL have signed a new 10-year agreement for Bing to provide search listings and ads to AOL as of January 1, 2016.

When Google first won the AOL deal back in 2002, it was a huge deal for that company. Google was still up-and-coming; AOL had substantial search traffic. Google managed to renew the deal every time it came up since, such as in 2010. But no more.

That’s no great loss for Google, however. AOL has only about 1% of the search traffic in the US, versus Google’s 65%. Google will likely not notice the loss. Potentially, the company didn’t even fight for or hard to renew the deal. The loss even helps Google argue that it’s not as completely dominant in search as it’s often criticized for.

It’s still a great win for Bing. It recently passed the 20% share mark in the US, and the AOL deal will give it a further nudge forward.

Also as part of today’s news, Microsoft is giving up its display ad sales business to AOL and says that Bing generates enough revenue to operate on a standalone basis, if it wanted. For more both of those topics, see our stories at Marketing Land below:

Postscript: Google told us it had no comment to give on the deal or if it tried to renew with AOL.

About The Author

Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, MarTech Today and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.