Mozilla has teamed up with Microsoft to launch a new version of the Firefox browser using Microsoft’s Bing as the integrated search option. The deal comes just a few weeks before Mozilla’s search deal with Google is due to expire, CNET reports.
Previously, Firefox users were able to download Bing as an add-on. But the new option will make it much easier to configure Bing as the default browser, Microsoft’s Tor Steiner said in a Bing blog post. Users of the new browser can use “the Web the way they want without having to take extra steps to navigate or customize their settings to Bing,” Steiner wrote. In the past Google has been the default homepage and search option for Firefox users.
The LA Times notes that Google competes with Bing as a search engine, while Google’s Chrome browser competes with Firefox.
Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, has lost the company around $5.5 billion since its launch in 2009, according to CNN. Although it is the default search engine for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Windows phones and BlackBerry devices, Bing has struggled to get a foothold in the search market. Recent reports show that Bing holds less than 4 percent of the global search engine market. Google controls about 82 percent of the market, Yahoo about 7 percent, and China’s Baidu around 5 percent.
