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Firefox Drops Google as Default Search Engine, New Deal with Yahoo - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 20 November 2014 / 3,845 Views

Mozilla has had a deal with Google for the last 10 years where it would  be the default search engine on Firefox. Mozilla has now struck a deal with Yahoo where Yahoo will be the default search engine. The deal will last for five years.

Yahoo also announced it will be coming out with improved search functions starting in December. Yahoo will also add Firefox support for Do Not Track. Firefox currently has a 17 percent marketshare for the web browser market.

"Google has been the Firefox global search default since 2004," said Mozilla CEO Chris Beard. "Our agreement came up for renewal this year, and we took this as an opportunity to review our competitive strategy and explore our options."

"In evaluating our search partnerships, our primary consideration was to ensure our strategy aligned with our values of choice and independence, and positions us to innovate and advance our mission in ways that best serve our users and the Web. In the end, each of the partnership options available to us had strong, improved economic terms reflecting the significant value that Firefox brings to the ecosystem. But one strategy stood out from the rest."

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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. Outside, in the real world, he has a passion for the outdoors which includes everything from hiking to having received his B.A. in Environmental Studies. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.


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12 Comments
withdreday (on 20 November 2014)

Maybe now they can update the browser so it will actually work with flash...

  • +1
IceHedge (on 21 November 2014)

I used to work for a computer store, and from personal experience, I've had to remove quite a few PCs with spyware, trojans, viruses, etc. that happened to each have an almost unremovable yahoo search engine bar in the browser, so you can imagine by emergent need to remove Firefox as soon as I read about this deal. That, and my email account I had with yahoo since 2002 was stolen with no attempt from yahoo to get it back, so I can definitely do without, thanks.

Just as a defense why I still use Firefox, I've had my current PC since 2011 and had zero viruses with Firefox, but it looks like it's time to move on to Chrome.

  • 0
withdreday IceHedge (on 21 November 2014)

Come'on...you can change the defalut engine in like 2 clicks.

In other news though: Firefox still sucks.

  • 0
QUAKECore89 (on 21 November 2014)

Long time no see Yahoo!... It's been a while since i used the search site back in 90s. Nostalgic.

  • 0
FujiokaMidori (on 21 November 2014)

People still uses FireFox?
I remember when it took them like two years to move from FireFox 2 to FireFox 3... those were the days. Now, it's a new FireFox every 17 hours... and resource hungry as FUCK

  • 0
ICStats (on 20 November 2014)

They will just make Yahoo the default in the search box, but Google is still right there as an option along with other search providers.

This only really affects the uninformed who don't know the difference between search engines.

  • 0
Cheddarchet (on 20 November 2014)

What's a Yahoo?

  • 0
Trunkin (on 20 November 2014)

Drops Google for literally the worst search engine on the internet. People are just gonna switch it anyway.

  • 0
nanarchy Trunkin (on 20 November 2014)

Mozilla are desperate at this point, everyone has dumped there bloated excuse for a browser. basically they need to go with whoever can pay their bills.

  • 0
WolfpackN64 (on 20 November 2014)

Mozilla really is trying all it can to compete with Google.

  • 0
ICStats WolfpackN64 (on 21 November 2014)

About 95% of Mozilla's revenue ($300 million) came from Google before. I'm surprised Yahoo can afford this.

  • 0
Ljink96 (on 20 November 2014)

Well that's stupid.

  • -1