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Comment by ocdtrekkie | Hacker News Reader

There was never any real commitment to the "best" search engine in a region. Mozilla has been paid by Google to be the default search since 2004.

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I'd say they're using the best for the financial viability of Mozilla. Which in turn is for the best of their users.

I don't disagree. But that doesn't change the fact that the parent post's idea that they "choose the best search engine" is completely false. Mozilla has been paid for search settings consistently since 2004.

The feedback in the responses leads me to believe my ear may have been too close to the loudspeaker, but here is a quote attributed to Mozilla Marketing leader Asa Dotzler in 2009: “Firefox users have their choice of several built-in and popular search services including Google’s number 1 competitor and the second most popular, Yahoo!. Google is the default for most Firefox locales because it’s the best search service available for the largest number of Firefox users (and was years before there was any revenue associated with default status).” https://searchengineland.com/will-bing-finally-be-admitted-i...

I also think I remember Firefox’s default search engine in Japan regularly being used as an example of doing right by users.

How do you reconcile your claim with the fact that Yandex has been the default search engine in the Russian localization of Firefox for years?

Google paid Mozilla to be the default search engine in the United States.

Google used to be the default search engine in Russia too (though I can't comment on whether they were paying for that). When it became clear that Yandex generally delivered better search results for queries in Russian, Mozilla switched to Yandex.

Are you 100% sure Yandex has not provided any funding to Mozilla? "Following our review in 2014, Google remained the default provider outside the US, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkey, China, and other regions where we had search agreements."

> Are you 100% sure Yandex has not provided any funding to Mozilla?

I am 100% sure it has. But the point is that all search engines are willing to create these funding deals, so that leaves the freedom to pick the ones that you think are best for users.

The more accurate understanding is: All search engines are willing to create these funding deals, so you pick the biggest cash offer.

If you're trying to maximize revenue, sure.

But the whole point is that Mozilla is trying to have revenue, obviously, but maximizing it is not a goal, as long as it covers expenses.

Both Bing and Yahoo have been the default search between now and then too...

I don't think Bing has ever been the default search on Firefox. Google paid for the spot from 2004-2014, and Yahoo paid for it between 2014-2017. Google is almost certainly paying for the spot again now. At least here in the US, Bing has never been the default as far as I know.

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