Technology
Tech giant Yahoo will now replace online leader Google as the default search engine on Firefox's internet browsers in the US. The BBC reports:
Yahoo said it would launch a "clean, modern and immersive design" search engine for Firefox users starting in December.
The news comes as Google's arrangement with Firefox maker Mozilla nears an end after a decade-long partnership.
Market leader Google accounts for 67% of searches from US desktop computers. That compares to about 20% for Microsoft and 10% for Yahoo, according to research firm comScore.
Yahoo chief executive Marisa Mayer called the five-year deal with Firefox "the most significant partnership for Yahoo in five years". "At Yahoo, we believe deeply in search - it's an area of investment and opportunity for us," she added.
Firefox users in the US will be automatically directed to search results on Yahoo's website when they enter a subject into the small box that appears at the top of the browser. Firefox, however, does lag behind Google Chrome in the US browser market.
A surge in traffic led to Mozilla's announcement page crashing, shortly after the news was announced. The Telegraph writes:
The new partnership, announced in a blog post by Yahoo! chief executive Marissa Meyer, will result in a major win for Yahoo. Mozilla Firefox users search the web more than 100 billion times each year.
By comparison only 10pc of web searches are made through Yahoo!, which is powered by Microsoft Bing. Google has been Firefox's default global search engine since 2004 but the relationship has been strained since Google's Chrome browser stole significant market share. It has previously been reported that Google paid Mozilla £300m a year to be the default search engine, almost 90pc of the browser's annual revenues.
Ms Mayer wrote on the Yahoo blog that the new partnership “helps to expand our reach in search and gives us an opportunity to work even more closely with Mozilla to find ways to innovate in search, communications, and digital content.”
Mayer also indicated “future product integrations” could be in the pipeline.
