Mozilla and Yahoo have entered into a five-year partnership that makes Yahoo the default search provider for Firefox on mobile and desktop. The deal will start in Dec 2014 in the United States and then wil be spread to other markets later.
Yahoo sees it as a growth opportunity after Google and Mozilla failed to renew the deal and probably due to a constrained relationship as Google launched its own Chrome browser even when it had a deal with Firefox. Google has been the Firefox global search default since 2004 and was up for renewal this year and Firefox just changed mind.
This shift will also affect ad netowrks which depend on Google search querries as now more querries will come from Yahoo. This is a great deal for Yahoo as Firefox has an estimated 16 percent desktop browser market share in the US market.
In a statement Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO said,“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. At Yahoo, we believe deeply in search – it’s an area of investment, opportunity and growth for us.”
According to Firefox, search is a core part of the online experience for everyone — Firefox users alone search the Web more than 100 billion times per year. The firm said it was ending its practice of having a single global default search provider and was adopting a more local and flexible approach to increase choice and innovation on the Web, with new and expanded search partnerships by country. In the US, Yahoo Search will become the default search experience for Firefox with Firefox’s Do Not Track (DNT) policy. Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, eBay, Amazon, Twitter and Wikipedia will continue to be built-in as alternate search options.
In Russia, Yandex Search will become the default search experience for Firefox while Google, DuckDuckGo, OZON.ru, Price.ru, Mail.ru, and Wikipedia will continue to be built-in as alternate search options. In China, Baidu will continue to be the default search experience for Firefox while Google, Bing, Youdao, Taobao and other local options will continue to be built-in as alternate search options.
Chris Beard, Mozilla CEO said, “Our new search strategy doubles down on our commitment to make Firefox a browser for everyone, with more choice and opportunity for innovation. We are excited to partner with Yahoo to bring a new, re-imagined Yahoo search experience to Firefox users in the U.S. featuring the best of the Web, and to explore new innovative search and content experiences together.”