Mozilla has begun testing Perplexity's built-in search engine for Firefox, and Windows Report reports that some users are seeing a message in the address bar in version 139 of the browser.
Users are offered the option to use the Perplexity search engine when they attempt to make a query. The offer appears as a pop-up notification. Users are also given the option to opt out of the test.
Unlike standard search engines like Google or DuckDuckGo, Perplexity uses artificial intelligence to gather information from various sources to provide one comprehensive answer to a query.
The move could signal that Mozilla is looking for an alternative to Google, which has been the primary search engine in Firefox for years and provides the company with a large portion of its revenue. Whether the testing with Perplexity will turn into a full-fledged partnership is still unknown. Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Wikipedia are also currently available in the browser.
We remind you that in early May Mozilla stated that without an agreement with Google, Firefox could close. The company's CFO, Eric Mülheim, says that court decisions regarding Google's monopoly in the search engine market threaten the existence of the browser.
According to unconfirmed reports, Google pays the browser developers around $400 million annually for the right to be the default search engine. Muelheim has also previously said that the companies' deal is responsible for around 85% of Firefox's revenue.