Mozilla Drops Google as the Global and Default Search Engine for Firefox
For a decade now, Mozilla’s Firefox web browser globally featured Google as the default search engine. But after 10 years, things are about to change.
Mozilla’s agreement with Google came up for renewal this year. And since Firefox is an independent browser that prides itself on the fact that it doesn’t answer to industry, shareholder or any other corporate interests, it decided to reevaluate its search partnerships.
“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,” explained Mozilla CEO, Chris Beard. “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.”
With the aim of promoting choice and innovation, Mozilla ended its practice of having a single global default search provider and adopted a new strategy: the default search provider varies by country.
In the US, the default search provider becomes Yahoo!, as part of a new 5-year strategic partnership.
Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, eBay, Amazon, Twitter and Wikipedia will be presented as search alternatives to Firefox users in the US.
This December, as part of the strategic partnership between Mozilla and Yahoo!, Firefox users will be presented with an enhanced Yahoo Search experience that features a clean, modern interface. Also as part of the strategic partnership, Yahoo! will also support Do Not Track (DNT) in Firefox.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Mozilla. Mozilla is an inspirational industry leader who puts users first and focuses on building forward-leaning, compelling experiences. We’re so proud that they’ve chosen us as their long-term partner in search, and I can’t wait to see what innovations we build together,” said in a press release Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO. “At Yahoo, we believe deeply in search – it’s an area of investment, opportunity and growth for us. This partnership helps to expand our reach in search and also gives us an opportunity to work closely with Mozilla to find ways to innovate more broadly in search, communications, and digital content.”
In Russia, Google is replaced by Yandex Search as the default search provider.
Google, DuckDuckGo, OZON.ru, Price.ru, Mail.ru, and Wikipedia will be presented as search alternatives to Firefox users in Russia.
In China, Google is replaced by Baidu as the default search provider.
Google, Bing, Youdao, Taobao and other local options will be presented as search alternatives to Firefox users in China.
At an international level, Mozilla's Firefox web browser will come with 61 pre-installed search providers.
Google continues to be one of these pre-installed search providers, but it won't be the default anymore.
In related news, Piriform recently rolled out CCleaner 5.0 Beta to the public. This Beta release comes with a UI redesign - the interface that remained mostly unchanged for the past 10 years, has been redesigned. Read more about this topic here.
Mozilla’s agreement with Google came up for renewal this year. And since Firefox is an independent browser that prides itself on the fact that it doesn’t answer to industry, shareholder or any other corporate interests, it decided to reevaluate its search partnerships.
“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,” explained Mozilla CEO, Chris Beard. “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.”
With the aim of promoting choice and innovation, Mozilla ended its practice of having a single global default search provider and adopted a new strategy: the default search provider varies by country.
In the US, the default search provider becomes Yahoo!, as part of a new 5-year strategic partnership.
Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, eBay, Amazon, Twitter and Wikipedia will be presented as search alternatives to Firefox users in the US.
This December, as part of the strategic partnership between Mozilla and Yahoo!, Firefox users will be presented with an enhanced Yahoo Search experience that features a clean, modern interface. Also as part of the strategic partnership, Yahoo! will also support Do Not Track (DNT) in Firefox.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Mozilla. Mozilla is an inspirational industry leader who puts users first and focuses on building forward-leaning, compelling experiences. We’re so proud that they’ve chosen us as their long-term partner in search, and I can’t wait to see what innovations we build together,” said in a press release Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO. “At Yahoo, we believe deeply in search – it’s an area of investment, opportunity and growth for us. This partnership helps to expand our reach in search and also gives us an opportunity to work closely with Mozilla to find ways to innovate more broadly in search, communications, and digital content.”
In Russia, Google is replaced by Yandex Search as the default search provider.
Google, DuckDuckGo, OZON.ru, Price.ru, Mail.ru, and Wikipedia will be presented as search alternatives to Firefox users in Russia.
In China, Google is replaced by Baidu as the default search provider.
Google, Bing, Youdao, Taobao and other local options will be presented as search alternatives to Firefox users in China.
At an international level, Mozilla's Firefox web browser will come with 61 pre-installed search providers.
Google continues to be one of these pre-installed search providers, but it won't be the default anymore.
In related news, Piriform recently rolled out CCleaner 5.0 Beta to the public. This Beta release comes with a UI redesign - the interface that remained mostly unchanged for the past 10 years, has been redesigned. Read more about this topic here.
