With the launch of Firefox Quantum, Mozilla released what’s probably the most important update to its browser in recent years. It’s faster, lighter and you should give it a try. And as you do so, you’ll notice another change: Google is now the default search engine again — at least if you live in the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In 2014, Mozilla struck a deal with Yahoo to make it the default search engine provider for users in the U.S., with Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and others as options. While it was a small change, it was part of a number of moves that turned users against Firefox because it didn’t always feel as if Mozilla had the user’s best interests in mind. Firefox Quantum (aka, Firefox 57), is the company’s effort to correct its mistakes and it’s good to see that Google is back in the default slot (Disclaimer: TechCrunch is part of Oath, Verizon’s roll-up of AOL and Yahoo, though nobody at TechCrunch that I know has ever willingly used Yahoo Search).
I am glad to see them move off Yahoo that company is a sinking ship with many security issues and no leadership or direction.