While announcing its third quarter earning results today, Yahoo also revealed details about a deal with Google to display the competitor’s search results through 2018.

The deal, which has been in place since October 1st, includes Google’s search ads, algorithmic search, and image search services for both desktop and mobile devices.

Yahoo explains the details of its agreement with Google:

“In October, the company reached an agreement with Google that provides Yahoo with additional flexibility to choose among suppliers of search results and ads. Google’s offerings complement the search services provided by Microsoft, which remains a strong partner, as well as Yahoo’s own search technologies and ad products.”

Partnering with competitors Google and Microsoft helps Yahoo compensate for its technological limitations in delivering queries and serving ads.

Through these partnerships Yahoo benefits from infrastructure already in place by Google and Bing — allowing the company to deliver better results for searchers while retaining a cut of the ad revenue.

The latest stats, according to comScore, sees Yahoo sitting in third place in terms of US search market share with 12.7%. Microsoft is holding on to 20%, with Google still holding the lion’s share are 64%.

Featured Image Credit: Claudio Divizia / Shutterstock.com