Haven't they done something like this before? I remember Yahoo promoting a Yahoo-branded Firefox. It's default search and homepage were Yahoo, and every titlebar had "Firefox and Yahoo" at the end instead of just "Firefox."
New Search Strategy for Firefox
71–80 of 352 posts
Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox
#72It's always seemed as though Google's and Mozilla's relationship would weaken over the years, though honestly I expected Bing rather than Yahoo to be the one to step up and fill Google's shoes. Also surprising is that apparently Mozilla was the one to initiate the switch.
As a Firefox user, all in all I'm rather pleased. I've just tried a few of my typical searches on Yahoo and though the expected links aren't the top results (seeing links for Rust-the-game instead of Rust-the-language...), they're on the first page. Let's see if that improves with time as I use it more. And I'm happy to support some more diversity in this space.
Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Anyone have any insights into this? From the outside it looks like Mozilla is parting ways with Google because of Chrome. Looks more like Mozilla is parting ways with Google because of money -- whether Yahoo! offering more than Google has in the past or Google offering less. (Though, looking at historical usage share measures, there's a good argument that if Google is offering less, its likely because Chrome eclips…
if Google is offering less, its likely because Chrome eclipsing Firefox -- and by some measures IE -- has reduced the value of default search placement in Firefox Yahoo is looking at the same marketshare numbers, so that actually can't be the reason.
> Yahoo is looking at the same marketshare numbers, so that actually can't be the reason.
It certainly can be the reason that Google's offer isn't as strong -- the value of default search place in the third-place-with-continuing-declining-share browser is conceivably quite different to a party that owns what is, depending on which measure you look at, either the first- or second-place browser and a party that doesn't have any browser.
Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox
#74It's always seemed as though Google's and Mozilla's relationship would weaken over the years, though honestly I expected Bing rather than Yahoo to be the one to step up and fill Google's shoes. Also surprising is that apparently Mozilla was the one to initiate the switch. As a Firefox user, all in all I'm rather pleased. I've just tried a few of my typical searches on Yahoo and though the expected links aren't the to…
The new Yahoo search that's coming soon is meant to be much better. So I suggest you reserve your judgment until then :)
Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox
#75The correct link is https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/11/19/promoting-choice-an... . Seems the link was changed.
They're separate posts, I hadn't seen that one until you shared it. I think it's a better article than this one, and would be happy if a mod changed the link and title. :D
Oh, my mistake entirely.
Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox
#76(throwaway account) While I believe the party line is probably true ("Mozilla decided not to go with Google"), it's also disingenuous. Mozilla chose not to go with Google because Google wasn't willing to pay what they were before. They straight up told Mozilla this 3 years ago when they signed the billion dollar contract; Mozilla had 3 years to become profitable. That's why they switched focus to FirefoxOS; they thou…
> For the record, Google made billions off being Firefox's default search engine. They paid Firefox $300mil a year for three years, but that was only a small fraction of how much Google profited from Firefox searches. Not sure if it's still true, but three years ago they made more from Firefox than they did from Chrome.
Google doesn't really make money from Firefox or Chrome (the browser), per se (except insofar as Chrome increases the value of things that Google does sell that include it, like Chromebooks, Nexus devices, etc.), it makes money from searches, whether default or not. 3 years ago, sure, more searches -- to Google or any other search provider -- came from Firefox than Chrome because Firefox had more usage share than Chrome. That's rather dramatically reversed since then.
Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox
#77What will be the default engine in countries not listed in post? It is not exactly clear, apart from saying that Google will be pre-installed (but not default?).
Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox
#78Note that Mozilla is making Yahoo reinstate support for Do-Not-Track, which it had dropped earlier this year. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2150981/yahoo-drops-do-not-tr...
Yahoo will only respect DNT for Firefox users. This is because DNT was essentially ruined after Microsoft turned DNT on by default in IE. Since it didn't represent an explicit user choice, it carried much less weight. It is an explicit choice in Firefox.
Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think I follow this argument. Can you explain it further? It feels like Yahoo probably just offered more money.
Compared to the previous deal (where Google was the global default), the new deal also leaves Mozilla more free to pursue different partnerships worldwide. For example, Yandex is now the default Firefox search engine in Russia (as it was three years ago, before the global Google deal).
You mean Yandex in Russia. Baidu is China :)
Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox
#80Some more details: * This is a new, more flexible partnership strategy. * Continuing the existing relationship with Google was an option, but Mozilla chose to end the Google relationship. * All the options Mozilla considered had strong, improved economic terms (but the concrete numbers are not public). Because all the options had improved economics, that allowed Mozilla to really consider the strategic outlook. * The…
Nice. Sometimes watching the search business is like watching "Game of Thrones".