Google will become an alternative choice in Firefox, as will DuckDuckGo
There are few things you can count on in life -- death, taxes, and blowhard analysts incorrectly proclaiming the death of the PC. A year ago, we would have added another entry, one that says Google will be the default search in Firefox until the end of time. No one would question it because the two have been so close for so long, but anything can happen when a contract comes up for renewal. And what happened this time is Mozilla chose Yahoo to replace Google as its default search provider for the next five years.
It's not entirely clear why Mozilla made the decision to end its long-time relationship with Google, though there are some hints if you read between the lines.
"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," Mozilla stated in a blog post.
The very next section in Mozilla's blog talks about "Promoting Choice and Innovation." Going forward, Firefox will do away with having a single global default search provider -- Yahoo will be the default option for searches in the U.S., though not necessarily in other parts of the world. For example, Yandex Search will be the default in Russia and Baidiu will remain the default in China.
For Mozilla to be motivated to switch, it's likely Google was either unwilling to budge on being the global default, or offered Mozilla significantly less money to go that route. Either way, Yahoo is giddy as can be over supplanting Google in Firefox, which it hopes will increase its search market share.
The reason this matters is two-fold: For one, there are tons of advertising dollars at stake, which makes it highly advantageous to whichever search engine is the default option. And secondly, most of Mozilla's revenue has historically come from these search deals.
Yahoo and Mozilla didn't disclose how much the deal is worth, though it's clear Yahoo is the more flexible choice. In addition to supplanting Google, Yahoo will support Do Not Track (DNT) in Firefox. Additionally, remember DuckDuckGo, which was featured in our recent search engine scuffle? It's growing up fast and is being added as a built-in alternate search option.
According to Yahoo, it's working with Mozilla to build a clean, modern, and immersive search experience that will launch first to Firefox's U.S. users in December, and then to all Yahoo users in early 2015.
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