The partnership that saw Bing installed as the default search engine on all Hewlett-Packard computers sold in Canada and the US last year has been extended globally.
A new partnership between PC manufacturer Hewlett Packard (HP) and Microsoft will see the software firm's Bing become the default search engine on HP PCs sold worldwide.
The new deal is an extension of a previous partnership between Microsoft and HP, which saw Bing installed in all HP computers sold in Canada and the United States over a 12-month period.
Under the terms of the new three-year deal, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer noted that the default home page on new HP computers for business and personal use will be Microsoft-related - although users will be able to change these default settings if they choose to.
However, Notebooks.com commented that the partnership is likely to increase Bing's market share as many consumers will not ever choose to change these settings and the partnership will increase the profile of Bing among HP users.
Rival search engine Google has welcomed the move, according to its head of corporate communications for south-east Asia.
Dickson Seow commented to ZDNet Asia: "Having competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space - it makes us all work harder, and at the end of the day our users benefit from that."
