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Another blow to Yahoo as Mozilla terminates deal and inserts Google as default Search Engine

by Felix Omondi
yahoo firefox quantum

Did you hear that Mozilla released what is being termed the best version of its Firefox it has released in a long time? Well, in case you don’t know, Mozilla has launched the Firefox Quantum browser said to be faster, lighter, and has enough reasons to make you go back to using Firefox again.

There was a time when the Netscape was the favorite browser, but it was such a crap until Microsoft Internet Explorer came to our rescue. Yes, believe it or not! There was a point in time when IE (the browser we now use to download other browsers) was the hope for the world.

Then Mozilla came along and ushered in a whole new world of speed, performance, and stability. However, Firefox reign didn’t last for long before Google launched its Chrome browser and the lion’s share of the browsers market.

However, for all its shortcomings regarding speeds, very few users will doubt Firefox respect for privacy and security when compared to Chrome. While Chrome has been undeniably the best mainstream browser since its launch. It is one browser most users hate to love because of all the allegation of lack of user data privacy, which Google is aggressively harvesting to serve you targeted ads.

Well, Mozilla might have just come up with a way that could see Firefox rise to the top of the browser charts once again. The Firefox Quantum (Firefox 57) is said to correct all the mistakes Mozilla did to make Google Chrome surpass it by far in popularity.

Firefox Quantum is said to be twice as fast as the Firefox 52 released two months back, uses 30% less memory than Google Chrome, and maintains the privacy protection and customization options that have defined Firefox. It is also interesting to note that Mozilla has terminated the deal it struck with Yahoo back in 2014.

Yahoo no longer the default Search Engine

firefox quantumGoing forward, Firefox will put Google as the default search engine, and not Yahoo as has been the case since 2014. A move that will likely make matters worse for the search engine that is as good as lying on its deathbed. Of course, the users have the option of selecting a search engine of their choice.

Other options for default search engine for Firefox browser include eBay, DuckDuckGo, and Bing. Note that the deal Yahoo struck with Mozilla was to have it as the default search engine on Firefox for five years. Those five years are not yet up.

Denelle Dixon, the Mozilla Chief Business, and Legal Office said, “We exercised our contractual rights to terminate our agreement with Yahoo! based on a number of factors including doing what’s best for our bran, our effort to provide quality web search, and the broader content experience for our users. We believe there are opportunities to work with Oath and Verizon outside of search.

As part of our focus on user experience and performance in Firefox Quantum, Google will also become our new default search provider in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan. With over 60 search providers pre-installed as defaults or secondary options across more than 90 language versions, Firefox has more choice in search providers than any other browser.”

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