Australia, Brazil, and Mexico have populations of 22.5 million, 190.7 million, and 112.3 million people, respectively.  Which adds up to 325.5 million potential users, all in all.  It’s a big deal, then, that the Bing-Yahoo search transition progressed in these three countries today.

Kartik Ramakrishnan, who holds the very relevant title "Vice President, Yahoo Search Transition," wrote on the Yahoo Search Blog, "As planned, we are moving forward with the global transition of certain Yahoo! Search back-end functions to Microsoft’s search platform, and have just completed this process for organic search in Australia, Brazil and Mexico."

Then Ramakrishnan added, "This news is another step forward for the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance as we continue our efforts for a quality transition with our worldwide advertisers and partners."

So it sounds like everything is on schedule and going according to plan.  That’s good news for both companies, and for their users and investors.  (Remember, Yahoo in particular thinks this deal will save it money, meaning the sooner the transition process is completed, the better.)

One other important point: Ramakrishnan promised to provide additional updates as Bing and Yahoo continue to integrate their search operations around the world, so stay tuned.