Search is a core part of the online experience for everyone — Firefox users alone search the Web more than 100 billion times per year. Google has been the Firefox global search default since 2004. Their agreement came up for renewal this year, so they took this as an opportunity to review the competitive strategy and explore new options.
For the next 5 years, every Mozilla user in smartphones and desktops, will use Yahoo as the default search engine.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer was once Firefox's mortal enemy. But now it's Google Chrome, not IE, that's eating into Firefox usage.
This change is global, in Russia the main search engine will be Yandex and in China they are keeping Baidu.
Mozilla said that “while we have decided to not renew our agreement for global default placement, Google will continue to be a pre-installed search option.” What’s not clear is if users with the default search engine selected will be automatically migrated to the new default of Yahoo, or prompted to make the choice.
Google will also continue to power the Safe Browsing and Geolocation features of Firefox.
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