Mozilla and Google end relationship, Firefox to default to other search engines

The keepers of the open-source browser, Firefox, Mozilla, have ended their relationship with Google. The company, according to an announcement – is switching to other search providers across markets – Yahoo in the US, Yandex in Russia and Baidu in China. Of course, you can switch to your favourite provider as you will.

Ten years ago, Google and Mozilla started their mutual agreement to help each other, wherein Google would give Mozilla an estimated $100 million per year. In return, it would be set as the default search engine in Firefox.

It’ll be interesting to see how Mozilla tackles this situation. Google’s monies have been helping Mozilla with its expenses for the most part in the past decade, and it’s not yet known if Yahoo and other search providers will be offering the company any sort of monetary assistance.

In the meantime, Google’s gone from having no web browser to having Chrome, which now has at least 40% of the marketshare, according to W3Counter’s latest stats. It could definitely be one of the driving forces behind Mozilla’s decision.