Yahoo! chosen as default search provider for Firefox

SAN FRANCISCO — After a lucrative, 10-year relationship, Mozilla is breaking up with Google and switching to Yahoo! as the default search provider for its popular Firefox web browser.

Mozilla’s partnership with Google had been rocky for years, so its end was not entirely unexpected. Google dominates the United States search market, but it also created and actively promotes its own Web browser, Chrome.

Meanwhile, Mozilla has sought to create its own mobile phone software, competing with Google’s Android.

Under the agreement, users of the Firefox browser in the US will automatically be routed to search results on Yahoo!’s website when they type a query into the small box that appears at the top of the browser.

The announcement comes as Yahoo! chief executive officer Marissa Mayer seeks out more partnerships to boost the Web portal’s traffic and revenue.

Ms Mayer, who has been working to turn around Yahoo! since taking the helm two years ago, is looking for ways to bolster its search business, which makes up about 40 per cent of sales. Earlier this year, Yahoo!, which depends on Microsoft for its search technology, struck a deal with Yelp to deliver content from the review website.

“At Yahoo!, we believe deeply in search — it’s an area of investment, opportunity and growth for us,” Ms Mayer said in a statement.

Yahoo!’s search service is under pressure, with the Web portal’s share of the US search-advertising revenue projected to shrink to 5.6 per cent this year from 6.1 per cent last year, said market research firm eMarketer. Google has maintained its leadership, claiming more than 70 per cent of the market since 2010. AGENCIES