I was a long-time Firefox user, switching to Google Chrome only recently as Firefox’s gross inability to function properly with multiple tabs opened became a productivity gap that I couldn’t sacrifice. Because I had to update Firefox seemingly weekly to keep it even barely functional, I was constantly reminded that Firefox defaults to a Yahoo search engine. It’s a setting I’ve had to change to Google many, many times.
I have to change it to Google, of course, because searching on Yahoo feels like picking through a trash can searching for a meal. It’s not just inefficient, Yahoo has somehow managed to make the search process degrading. “No, I’m not LOOKING FOR the site that hasn’t been updated since 2010!” I honestly prefer Bing when I go slumming with off-brand search engines.
My experience is anecdotal, but when Mozilla and Yahoo sue and counter sue each other over whether Yahoo should still be the default search engine on Firefox, it just feels like these two companies have no idea what their problem is. Nobody wants Firefox to default to Yahoo. Nobody who uses Firefox cares what the damn, borked browser defaults to. If EITHER of these companies had better products, they wouldn’t need to fight each other.
That said, as between the two, I think Mozilla has the better argument. Mozilla and Yahoo made a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars to make Yahoo the default search engine for Firefox. Yahoo was acquired by Verizon, and Mozilla argues that the acquisition — among other things — triggered a clause that allowed Mozilla to back out of the failing deal. As of November, the new version of Firefox defaults to Google like a normal freaking web browser.
Here’s Mozilla’s argument, from Business Insider:
“We recently exercised our contractual right to terminate our agreement with Yahoo based on a number of factors including doing what’s best for our brand, our effort to provide quality web search, and the broader content experience for our users,” Mozilla wrote in a blog post on Tuesday evening…
In its lawsuit, Mozilla also alleged that Yahoo never delivered on its promise to invest and continue to improve its search engine.
“As a result, it was one of the significant factors that contributed to the decline in Firefox usage. Mozilla’s revenue from Yahoo never met expectations,” Mozilla wrote.
Mozilla also argues that Yahoo still owes it money.
Again, I don’t think Yahoo sucking contributed to the declining use in Firefox nearly as much as Firefox sucking. But Yahoo sucking is an undeniable truth and Yahoo hasn’t done anything to make itself not suck. Holding Mozilla to this deal, even after Yahoo got sold, data hacked, and generally soiled itself, is hanging a weight around Mozilla’s neck that it can’t afford to carry… even if Yahoo was paying its bills, which it allegedly is not.
Yahoo is free to wave around its contract, but nothing from the Marissa Mayer tenure at Yahoo suggests that the company was competently writing ironclad contracts from which there is no escape. It’s hard for me to imagine a contract that includes an early termination clause that isn’t triggered when your partner sucks, refuses to stop sucking, gets sold, and doesn’t pay its bills.
Still, it’s not like I’m going back to Firefox now that it defaults to the “right” search engine. I resisted Chrome because I don’t like Google running every aspect of my life. But now that I’m here, not having to restart everything because a Flash pop-up slowed my entire experience to a crawl is kind of nice.
Somebody Gchat me when Yahoo and Mozilla stop fighting and start producing a better product.
Mozilla says Yahoo never delivered on its search deal and caused Firefox usage to decline — now they’re both suing each other [Business Insider]
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.
