Verizon, Google Near Deal on Mobile Search

Verizon and Google are nearing a deal that would make Google the default search tool on Verizon mobile devices, the Wall Street Journal reports, giving a boost to the under-monetized $244-million mobile search business while setting a precedent for mobile ad revenue sharing. The deal, expected to close within weeks, will simplify mobile search for users while ending a standoff between carriers and Internet heavyweights.

Google has been trying to close a similar deal for more than a year, but disagreements on how revenue should be split and whether Google could save information from user device searches—prized information to carriers—have derailed previous talks. But 63% of the 16.7 million who use mobile search use Google, making its familiar search bar on the phones' home screens an attractive selling point for Verizon. (More Google stories.)