Mozilla’s decision to change the default search engine in Firefox from Google to Yahoo turned out to be a bad bet that worsened the user experience. This was told by the company’s CEO Mitchell Baker, writes Bloomberg.
She made the statement in an interview in 2022, which was shown during the current trial against Google. According to Mitchell Baker, Mozilla decided to switch to Yahoo’s technology in 2014.
“That bet failed,” Mitchell Baker explained in an interview. “The search experience that Yahoo was providing to Firefox users deteriorated.”
She also said that Yahoo agreed to pay Mozilla at least $375 million a year, compared to $276 million offered by Google. Among the conditions was a reduction in the number of ads. However, over time, Yahoo refused to do so, so the amount of advertising increased.
Eventually, Mozilla returned to using Google in 2017 and extended the agreement in 2020.
As a reminder, a high-profile lawsuit between Google and representatives of the Ministry of Justice has recently begun. In this case, government lawyers are trying to prove that Google suppressed competition for leadership in the field of Internet search.
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