Mozilla and Yahoo have announced a "strategic five-year partnership" to make Yahoo the default search experience for Firefox on both PCs and mobile devices.
This new agreement comes to replace a long-time partnership Mozilla had with Google for the past decade. This partnership between Google and Mozilla expires at the end of this month, after which Mozilla will move forward with Yahoo.
"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," Mozilla explained in a company blog post on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
"Search is a core part of the online experience for everyone, with Firefox users alone searching the Web more than 100 billion times per year globally," Mozilla CEO Chris Beard said in the press release. "Our new search strategy doubles down on our commitment to make Firefox a browser for everyone, with more choice and opportunity for innovation. We are excited to partner with Yahoo to bring a new, re-imagined Yahoo search experience to Firefox users in the U.S. featuring the best of the Web, and to explore new innovative search and content experiences together."
This new deal marks the most significant partnership Yahoo has secured in five years, and should significantly boost the company's relevance. Come December 2014, Yahoo will offer an "enhanced search experience" to Firefox users in the U.S., complete with a modern design made in collaboration with the Mozilla team.
"We're thrilled to partner with Mozilla. Mozilla is an inspirational industry leader who puts users first and focuses on building forward-leaning, compelling experiences. We're so proud that they've chosen us as their long-term partner in search, and I can't wait to see what innovations we build together," adds Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. "At Yahoo, we believe deeply in search - it's an area of investment, opportunity and growth for us. This partnership helps to expand our reach in search and also gives us an opportunity to work closely with Mozilla to find ways to innovate more broadly in search, communications, and digital content."
Mozilla also said it wants to offer new and expanded search partnerships by country, but the only new international search partner it announced so far is Yandex Search for Russia. China will continue to have Baidu as the default search partner, while Google, Bing, Youdao, and "other local options" will be available as well. Google, meanwhile, will continue to power Firefox's Safe Browsing and Geolocation features.
