The Mozilla Foundation decided a few months ago to change the default search engine from Google to Yahoo and it seems that their decision is starting to have an impact on Google, especially in the US.
Changing the default search engine may not seem like a big deal for a giant like Google, especially when users can change it back to the way it always has been with a single click. But the problem comes from users who don't change anything on their computers. They don't use add-ons, they don't customize their browsers, and they certainly don't make any changes to the default settings.
Firefox isn't the number one browser in the world, but it's still on a lot of computers. So when big changes are made, they can't go unnoticed.
What many users don't know is that there's a lot of money at stake on the internet. Just a few years ago, when the Mozilla announced that it would make Google the default search engine, it managed to extract tens of millions of dollars from the company.
Now that Google has its own browser, it doesn't want to pay for a privileged position in Firefox. But let's see what this move cost the company.
According to a related post by businesswire.com, StatCounter Global Stats reports that in December, Google had 75.2% of U.S. search referrals. Bing followed with 12.5% and Yahoo with 10.4%. That's a 2% drop for Google and a 4% increase for Yahoo. That may seem small, but if you can convert it into lost advertising dollars, it looks like Google is the big loser.
The same comparison should be made in a year to more accurately show the consequences of Mozilla's decision. Until then, it seems like Yahoo is gaining ground.
