Yahoo and Mozilla have announced a strategic five-year partnership making Yahoo the default search engine for the Firefox browser, according to a Wednesday statement on Mozilla’s blog.
Marissa 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.
Previously Google had been funding Mozilla in order to be the default search engine. Mozilla said that “while we have decided to not renew our agreement for global default placement, Google will continue to be a pre-installed search option.”
The agreement, called “the most significant partnership for Yahoo in five years,” will introduce an enhanced search experience featuring a “clean, modern and immersive design” for U.S. Firefox users starting next month. The partnership will also open up the door to explore other product integrations between the Internet company and the Internet browser.
What’s not clear is if users with the default search engine selected will be automatically migrated to the new default of Yahoo, or prompted to make the choice. The company also noted that Google will still power the Safe Browsing and Geolocation components of Firefox.
