It’s not often you hear about a company trumping the almighty Google — until now…kind of. Late last week Firefox said goodbye to Google, choosing Yahoo as their new default search engine. Admittedly, this is not a very big win in terms of the greater search engine share picture, but the accomplishment (read: decision) is definitely worth noting.
Firefox has used Google in their browser since Firefox’s inception back in 2004.
Interestingly, the switch comes hot on the heels of a small Google dip and Yahoo uptick. That is, Google’s territory within the U.S. search market dropped from 79.3% to 75.2% from last December, while Yahoo’s rose from 7.4% to 10.4%, according to StatCounter — a global analytics firm. This is Yahoo’s largest share of the American web search market since 2009, and Google’s smallest since 2008.
To get a slightly better idea of the overall effect, StatCounter data shows that just over 12% of U.S. internet users chose Firefox as their default browser. Though this chunk isn’t even half the size of Google’s overwhelming share, the search giant may feel some reverberations. On the other hand, we must not forget that Google still runs their very own very successful browser — Chrome.
What’s more, according Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter, Google’s main concern isn’t that Yahoo overtook their market share, but whether or not “Firefox users [will] switch back to Google.”
All in all, it’s pretty safe to say that Google probably doesn’t need to worry about the loss. In fact, “Google might claw back even the small share gone,” says Danny Sullivan, founding editor of Marketing Land and Search Engine Land.
