Under the terms of the 10-year search and advertising partnership they announced this morning, Microsoft's Bing search technology will be used to power search on Yahoo's mobile sites. However, executives emphasized that the arrangement was not exclusive and that Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) could eventually choose another partner if it wanted. "We have the option for using Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) technology for the mobile web experience, (but) it's not exclusive as it is for the PC," said Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz during a conference call. "We will start exercising the right to do that." For his part, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said there was still uncertainty about how the mobile search market would work out. "We don't know what we don't know," he said, adding that the non-exclusivity gave Yahoo additional flexibility.
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