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Comment by microDude | Hacker News Reader

It is very easy for the user to change the default Search Engine for the browser (to say Google or DuckDuckGo). I would think most FireFox users do this... So, $375M/year seems like a very high price for Yahoo to be paying. Is this just a price war between the few search giants trying to keep competitors priced out of the market?

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>I would think most FireFox users do this

My inclination is that outside of the hackernews community and those like it, most FireFox users have no idea what you're even describing.

Exactly. I've seen people young and old have Yahoo as their default search on their PC or phone, and they usually don't even realize it's not "Google" results.

My in-laws were still using browser toolbars. They thought that toolbars were how you used the web and only used websites that had them.

The idea of changing the search defaults is beyond a large segment of internet users.

I think the assumption is that you have to be at least technically literate enough to know that you want Firefox and purposefully download it. And if you're that kind of person, you probably also know the difference between Yahoo and Google and probably actually care.

Firefox is the "default" browser folks install in many countries.

That's right. Especially in Germany, that is notoriously suspicious of Google, Firefox is the default browser.

The Yahoo deal is US only though...

That's a good point.

I guess a lot of people care about their browser being Firefox more than they care about the search engine? I once used Yahoo for a few months (also Bing and DDT). It's pretty good IMO. Not everyone would switch to Google immediately.

Well, for good reason.

Every time someone started tracking people and do bulk data collection in the past century, it ended up with people being gassed, put into siberian camps, etc.

Thanks, but no thanks.

How does that even happen? I would guess for most non-technical users the default would be IE before they switch to Chrome.

That's why I put "default" in quotes. I meant the browser you choose to download when you get a new laptop. Not everyone thinks Chrome is the best browser out there.

I don't know how common my particular situation is but at the college I teach at the computers in the classroom and labs reset every time you restart or log in. That means every time i'm in class and want to do a quick search on something I end up searching on yahoo because it has reset to that.

Then I grumble at how terrible yahoo search results are and go to google and search for it again...

Unfortunately also the case for me. Whenever I use somebody else's computer or setup a new one, it's search for something then 'what the heck, what is this?" switch back to google, and think "I wonder if this will alienate some FF users" (since the default search results are less useful). So possibly long term loss by FF...

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