Firefox is Giving Bing a Chance

According to an article by PC Gamer, it seems like sounds like Firefox is testing the waters with Bing and has made it the default search engine for a small number of users that are signed up for Mozilla’s studies.  Mozilla (the owner of Firefox) is trying to see if users of the browser will tolerate Bing as the default search engine and embrace the change or if Google is simply here to stay.

Firefox has been struggling to survive in the modern browser world as Google Chrome dominates the market and Firefox is well below 10% of users.  For those unfamiliar with Firefox, the browser is a non-profit open-source browser that survives on funding provided through partnerships with major companies.  Most notably is the current deal with Google to have its search engine set as the browser’s default for over $400 million a year. 

The current Google contract with Firefox will be expiring in 2023 and these tests may play a major role in who Firefox partners with after that date.  This may be due to a 2014 deal with Yahoo that made it the default search engine, but Firefox separated itself from that deal as soon as possible due to unhappy users. 

It is hard to say what is fueling these tests or if they are simply just education-based tests for completely unrelated reasons, but with Firefox’s shrinking market share and less user volume to push deals, it may be signs of future changes to the browser.  Of course, users of Firefox can change their browser’s search to anything they would like via the settings with ease and that feature will not be going anyway any day soon.

Source: PC Gamer
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