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Firefox Microsoft The Internet

Microsoft Wants Firefox To Make Bing Its Default Search Engine (androidpolice.com) 52

Posted by BeauHD from the Google-under-pressure dept.
According to The Information, Microsoft wants to bid to make Bing Firefox's default search engine. Android Police reports: The browser's contract with Google is set to expire this year, at which point Mozilla could either renew it or switch to a different search engine. Microsoft would very much like to take Google's place in Firefox. It's not a guarantee that it will actually help boost Bing's usage -- after all, Firefox users who don't want to use Bing could just switch to a different search engine, as Yahoo found out a few years ago -- but Microsoft sees potential in such a deal.

The report also notes that there's also a potentially more juicy opportunity coming up for Microsoft if it really wants to get serious about pushing Bing. Apple's Safari browser, which is the main web browser on Apple devices, will have its Google contract expire next year. Despite throwing shade constantly, Google really benefits from the deal it currently has with Apple, and Microsoft could sweep in and try to get Bing to become the main browser on iPhones.
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Microsoft Wants Firefox To Make Bing Its Default Search Engine More

Microsoft Wants Firefox To Make Bing Its Default Search Engine

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  • YAARR Matey! (Score:4, Informative)

    by bubblyceiling ( 7940768 ) on Friday May 12, 2023 @06:31PM (#63517819)
    With the amount of DMCA & other random filtering that Google does, sometimes Yandex becomes useful. Specially for "sailing the seas"

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Gievers ( 162033 )

      After Google redesigned image search in a completely impractical way (probably because of lawsuits), I switched to DuckDuckGo years ago. Only rarely, when I can't find something, I use Google. Google Maps is also ahead of the competition.
      I think by now the competitors are very close to Google.
      However, the next big thing is AI - I use Hugging Cat for suggestions when programming instead of searching.

      Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

  • Only last week, Microsoft were quoted here that I should install Edge so that I could access their Bing AI chat feature.

    Does this mean they won't show me ads for their inferior Chromium-based solution?

    • I miss the era when Altavista was the leading search engine.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I miss Hotbot.

      • I'd go as far as to say the results from Altavista in 1997 were more accurate than whatever google shits out today.

        • I just find Bing adverts so awful, they're just so dreadful!

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by TWX ( 665546 )

          The Internet was a LOT smaller in 1997 though. It was also much easier to produce a result before scammers, spammers, and marketers started loading up their webpages with words that have nothing to do with a real product solely as a way to try to beat the algorithm.

          That all said Google annoys the hell out of me sometimes when it attempts to use synonyms or thinks that I've misspelled something and tries to out-think me, giving me garbage results at times. This can be especially annoying when searching f

      • Altavista was very good on phones as the page was light

      • I miss the era when Firefox was a leading browser.

        It's not a guarantee that it will actually help boost Bing's usage -- after all, Firefox users who don't want to use Bing could just switch to a different search engine

        The problem isn't Firefox users switching, it's that Mozilla has helped ensure that it barely has any users to begin with. And since Mozilla relies largely on Google largesse in order to keep pushing out those always-essential its UI refreshes, Microsoft would have to more or less underwrite Mozilla in order to get Bing in in case Google pulls out.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by TWX ( 665546 )

          I use Firefox because I did not like it when in 1997 Microsoft tried to force us into using Internet Explorer [wikipedia.org].

          Since 1997, there are three reasons I will use a Microsoft web browser.

          1. to download Firefox.
          2. to test the rare web page that needs to load in Microsoft's browser.
          3. for work's softphone VOIP system, where having it run on an entirely separate broswer makes it easier to find it.

          For that last one, Microsoft's giving its browser deeper hooks into the OS is the one place it's actually advantageous, because it

  • So you a serf of the Crown can continue to sleep with thine King.

  • I don't like it but (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JThundley ( 631154 ) on Friday May 12, 2023 @06:50PM (#63517839)

    Get that bag Mozilla. Do what you need to do to get paid and continue to exist. I'll happily change my default search engine back to Google if you change it. Just don't be like Microsoft and make me change it back with each and every new version that comes out :)

    • +1 Go for it

    • They've survived this long without whoring themselves out, why start now?

      • Say what? They whored themselves out to Google years ago.

        • Right, they're just considering a little ho variety is all.

        • ISTR yahoo too

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by jonadab ( 583620 )
          Google is actually a useful search engine though, and one that a lot (perhaps even most) of their users would choose for themselves if the default were a "choose one of these twenty-five search engines" page, like the way Wikipedia handles map coords.

          Bing not so much. I've literally never seen anyone seek out and use Bing, and I regularly help random people off the street with their internet use when they have problems or questions. I help people use Yahoo pretty frequently, for example, even though we do

      • Re:I don't like it but (Score:5, Informative)

        by black3d ( 1648913 ) on Friday May 12, 2023 @08:32PM (#63517941)

        They've survived this long without whoring themselves out, why start now?

        Not sure what you define that as. They sold the 'default search provider' slot in an auction. They have a paid referral agreement with Google, which is in large part realised by Google's position as default search engine. This has comprised almost the entirety of Mozilla's income (85%+) for the years it was being reported as a percentage of income, and since 2012 likely comprises almost their entire income. Once the initial agreement expired they had Yahoo as default for a while, but then in 2014, they struck a deal with Google for a billion dollars over three years in order to keep Google back at the top - that deal was then renewed in 2017.

        Selling the 'default search provider' slot is their primary means of income. I don't understand why, when Microsoft is looking to get in on that position, you suddenly consider such a move "whoring themselves out". That's been the main way they make their money for a long time now. If Microsoft is willing to pay more than Google, undoubtedly the executives will be all for it. As usage has dwindled, executive pay and bonuses have skyrocketed, largely off the back of such deals.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by arQon ( 447508 )

          As usage has dwindled, executive pay and bonuses have skyrocketed, largely off the back of such deals.

          I don't think it's all that hard to see the connection there. You're talking about a CEO whose entire history consists of literally nothing except "Take money from X, lose market share to X, increase own pay, sabotage any X-competing projects", rinsed and repeated annually.

          That said, Firefox could never have survived Google's malware Chrome installs, promotional carpet-bombing, and YouTube shenanigans even without the inside help. By the time a company's antitrust policies are so absurd that even MS gives u

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by 1s44c ( 552956 )

        The same reason everyone else does it. Money.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      As Google has slowly crippled search over the years, it has become easier to use DDG (duckduckgo) because the difference in quality is nearly negligible. As a Firefox user, I'm kind of already using Bing.
      For a long time I've had the bookmark keyword GO for doing advanced Google searches and then I switched it to DDG. Now my advanced Google search keyword is NOGO.

      • My thought exactly.

        I've been using the duck for a while and was a bit perplexed when I realized they used Bing, but they apparently have their own results to show now. So I too had been using Bing, without knowing and not suffering for it.

        But the annoying Edge reminders in windows make me angry, and the "make this my default" option seems to be borked because it keeps asking me what browser I want to use.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Teun ( 17872 )
        I don't quite agree, when using DDG I'm regularly not given the useful answer that a subsequent Google search does give.

    • If they really need money, Mozilla can stop wasting them on useless projects nobody wants and focus on the core (making a good browser)

  • Google's latest redesign of their reverse image search has made it basically useless. Bing is far better.

  • What do we call it now? Dingo? Fang. Bong-Lix, Bang-Fax, Big-bang-box? Bang-a-Dong Fling-a-lox?

  • Many of us remember Microsoft's illegal efforts to undermine Netscape Navigator. Gates avoided serious repercussions due to the trial judge seeming to lose it, and then his later on developing ties to Bill Clinton, who openly said we needed to keep Gates out of prison, but instead have him keep giving America an edge.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • Marge Simposon Beer Meme (Score:3)

    by mr.dreadful ( 758768 ) on Friday May 12, 2023 @11:53PM (#63518121)
    Hello, I'd like to use Duck Duck Go please. google? Duck Duck go. bing? Duck...Duck...Goooo... But yeah, Mozilla you take their money. As long as its not locked in, we're all good.

  • NO (Score:1)

    by nicubunu ( 242346 )

    So far I didn't give any money to Mozilla, but used to be a contributor. If they take such poisoned money from Microsoft, that is a guarantee I won't ever give something back to Mozilla any more.

  • Firefox has a long history of ignoring user settings and changing / moving toggles for their own benefit. So, you should fully expect one day all your Firefox installs to all switch to Bing and have to manually change them back again -- just like we've had to do for new tab ads, vpn ads, Google search provider, experiments, pocket, etc etc =\
  • I don't need Bing in Safari or Firefox !! I also don't use Google Chrome either !!!
  • if it tried to be more like the old Google. That is, a comparatively low level but highly efficient search engine that actually returns relevant results based on the input it was given, rather than an 'AI' trying to guess what I 'really' meant, ignoring search terms more or less at will and returning 90% irrelevant median shite, leaving me to prowl through the results trying to weed out the garbage.
  • ...as we know them seem to be reaching the end of their usefulness. There's already so much SEO garbage skewing search results & now marketers & scammers are generating exponentially more SEO prose with LLM tools & flooding the interwebs pipes with it. There's also the problem that LLMs are mostly trained on internet texts. That means they'll end up feeding on their own regurgitations - I doubt anything like reliable information will emerge out of that mess. We have to find new ways to find

  • Maybe Microsoft should start by showing that they are willing to embrace multi-os support.

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