Mozilla Firefox users in the US will be directed to Yahoo’s search engine rather than Google’s after Firefox decided to change the default search tool on its browsers. Yahoo are said to be on the cusp of launching a “clean, modern and immersive design” engine, readying it for release in December. Google have had an arrangement with Mozilla for ten years.
It’s said that two-thirds of all desktop searches in the US occur via Google’s search engine. The research firm comScore say that 10% of all searches take place via Yahoo and 20% happen via Microsoft’s search engine Bing.
The deal will last for years, with Yahoo’s Marisa Mayer calling it “the most significant partnership for Yahoo” in half a decade. Mayer said “At Yahoo, we believe deeply in search – it’s an area of investment and opportunity for us”. Firefox isn’t quite as successful as Google’s Chrome browser in the US, accounting for around 10% of all browsers on desktop computers, mobiles and tablets. Chrome has a third of the market according to StatCounter. Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt recently claimed that his company’s biggest search rival was in fact retailer Amazon rather than Yahoo and Microsoft. Google has 90% of the search market around the world.
Is this brave move by Firefox a smart one? Will you give Yahoo’s search engine a go?
