Lenovo Will Pre-load Microsoft’s Web Toolbar

Lenovo desktop computers and laptops will start showing up with the Web Toolbar from Microsoft pre-loaded. The two companies announced their deal yesterday. Until that announcement, Google was the default toolbar for Lenovo, so I am sure Microsoft is hooting and hollering for two reasons:

1. They grabbed some share from Google
2. This is the first deal of its kind for Microsoft

Under the agreement, Lenovo will set live.com as the default homepage for the computer’s Internet browser and it will add the Microsoft toolbar for web searching. Of course, the end-user can change these default settings but most users do not and that is why securing a deal like this is so important to companies in the Search Engine business.

Lenovo is the third-largest PC maker in the world (they bought IBM a few years ago) and so this deal should have an immediate impact on Microsoft’s share of the Search Engine market (currently, they are 3rd behind Yahoo and Google).