Mozilla Basis’s determination to change the search engine constructed into its Firefox browser to Yahoo from Google was a “failed” wager that degraded the consumer expertise, the corporate’s chief govt mentioned. From a report: Chief Govt Officer Mitchell Baker mentioned Mozilla determined to change to Yahoo’s expertise in 2014 after CEO Marissa Mayer took over and promised “to make an enormous wager on us.”
“That wager failed,” Baker mentioned in a videotaped interview from 2022 performed Wednesday in Google’s protection through the Justice Division’s antitrust trial. “The search expertise that Yahoo was offering to Firefox customers deteriorated.” The Mozilla instance — the one scenario wherein a browser has switched the default search engine supplier — has been cited by each Google and the Justice Division to help their arguments within the case. […] Yahoo agreed to pay Mozilla a minimal of $375 million — greater than the $276 million a 12 months that Google was providing, Baker mentioned. It additionally agreed to cut back the variety of advertisements and supply much less consumer monitoring than Google, however over time Yahoo reneged on that and started displaying extra promoting, she added.