Firefox Welcomes Yahoo As Default Search Engine For US Ditching Google

Firefox welcomes Yahoo! as its new search engine for its users in the United States, which will commence in December. Yahoo! is then expected to promote "clean, modern and immersive search experience" to all of its search users.

In a blog post last Wednesday, Yahoo! Chief Executive Marissa Mayer expressed her excitement as the company enters a 5-year partnership with Mozilla making Yahoo! the new default search engine for Firefox both on mobile and desktop. Mayer also said that the 5-year partnership is most significant for the company and that they are proud to be chosen by Mozilla, its long-term partner in search.

There are millions of users of different search engines who perform around 100 billion searches a year and Firefox happens to be a major traffic source and was once a major contributor to Google's revenue. Back in 2012, to prove its wide scope, Mozilla's search revenue reached a whopping $311 million, CNET reports.

According to Mozilla's Chairwoman Mitchell Baker, the switch to Yahoo! was pushed by Mozilla's desire to improve the search experience for avid users of Firefox. She also shared that negotiating with Yahoo! was simpler than Google. During their partnership, Google still competed with Firefox by enticing users to its own Chrome browser.

On the other hand, Yahoo's search results are actually powered by Microsoft Corp.'s Bing search engine. The partnership started in 2009 though not all are familiar with such ties since Yahoo! still controls the over-all look of its search engine and they also sell ads that appear near search results. Based on Wall Street Journal's report, revenue search, which excludes commissions paid to partners, total to $450 million in the third quarter or 39 percent of Yahoo's total revenue.

While Yahoo! is Firefox's new search engine in the U.S., Yandex is the default search for Russian users and Baidu is the default for users in China. Google will remain the default search engine for other countries though. Obviously, Mozilla has long been dependent on Google but the separation has made the rivalry between the two grow even bigger. Google Chrome garnering 51.3 percent of global market share got the top spot while Microsoft's Internet Explorer is in second with 21.3 percent share followed by Firefox with 18.8 percent.