Firefox to switch default search engine from Google to Yahoo

published 20 November 2014

Mozilla has ditched Google as its default search engine after a 10-year agreement between the companies came to an end.

Firefox will now use Yahoo as its default search engine in the US from December. Under the terms of the five-year deal, Yahoo will support Do Not Track (DNT) within Firefox.

Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, eBay, Amazon, Twitter and Wikipedia will remain as alternate search options for users who want to manually switch.

In Russia, Yandex Search will be the default search provider and Baidu will remain the defacto engine in China.

The global partnership between Google and Mozilla has not been renewed either but the popular search engine will still be pre-installed.

"Google has been the Firefox global search default since 2004. Our agreement came up for renewal this year, and we took this as an opportunity to review our competitive strategy and explore our options," noted Chris Beard, Mozilla CEO in a blog post.

"We are ending our practice of having a single global default search provider. We are adopting a more local and flexible approach to increase choice and innovation on the web, with new and expanded search partnerships by country."

Mozilla claims its Firefox browser accounts for 100 billion web searches per year - so this looks like a significant coup for Yahoo.

Khidr Suleman is the Technical Editor at IT Pro, a role he has fulfilled since March 2012. He is responsible for the reviews section on the site - so get in touch if you have a product you think might be of interest to the business world. He also covers the hardware and operating systems beats. Prior to joining IT Pro, Khidr worked as a reporter at Incisive Media. He studied law at the University of Reading and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism and Online Writing at PMA Training.