he online search giant becomes the default search engine on the browser Mozilla Foundation in the United States.
It's a bit of a thunder in the world of online research. Three years after signing an agreement to make Yahoo the default engine on its Firefox browser in some key geographies and in particular in the United States, the Mozilla Foundation is flip-flop. In the US market, but also in Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Firefox users will now see the results of ... Google.
he announcement may seem strange, since the giant Mountain View is the main competitor of the famous navigator red panda. With Chrome, its own software to explore the Web released in 2008, Google has carved cruppers to Firefox (and Internet Explorer Microsoft). While it accounted for nearly a third of the global browser market in early 2010 according to StarCounter, Firefox has returned to 6% today, against 55% for Chrome.
It is with the stated objective of challenging the hegemony of Google's browser that the Mozilla Foundation has released the latest version of its software. Called Firefox Quantum, it is lighter, faster and less resource intensive than the previous ones and, above all, its competitors, according to its developers.
ahoo on the sidelines
At the very moment when she wants to take back her crown in the navigation, the Mozilla Foundation makes a place of choice to Google's search engine. And this, much to the chagrin of Yahoo, recently bought by Verizon and renamed Oath. In 2014, then led by Marissa Mayer, Yahoo had signed a five-year deal with Firefox. In 2015, the group donated $ 375 million to the Mozilla Foundation and planned to do the same until 2019.
Google, whose portfolio depth is almost unfathomable, has probably outbid, even if no financial element has been communicated on the new agreement. The online search giant spends a fortune to ensure that it remains the master of online queries. It is indeed from this position of strength that he can collect the data and display the advertisements that make his fortune.
Billions for Apple
In October, the group revealed that the costs of commissions paid to third parties to place its search engine jumped 54% to $ 2.4 billion. To be present on the iPhone, Google has paid in 2014 to Apple the trifle of $ 1 billion.
And Bernstein analysts estimated this summer that the cost of this partnership would reach 3 billion this year. Even if it does not have the power of negotiation of the firm to the apple, no doubt that Firefox, too, took advantage of this prodigality to restore his red panda.