Firefox: Mozilla and Google sign for another three years

Google will be the default search engine used in Firefox for another three years with Mozilla and Google having now reached a new agreement.

Relations between Mozilla and Google have been the subject of numerous rumours and questions about the signing of a new partnership agreement. The last Firefox agreement between the two companies expired last month, with a new deal being crucial to Mozilla as 84% of their revenue in 2010 came from Google.

For the next three years, the partnership between Mozilla and Google has been extended. Until at least 2014, the Google search engine will be the default displayed in the Firefox browser.

Gary Kovacs declares that "Under this multi-year agreement, Google Search will continue to be the default search provider for hundreds of millions of Firefox users around the world".

Mozilla’s CEO hasn’t disclosed the financial terms of the agreement, so it is difficult to know whether it is as lucrative as the previous one signed in 2008 when Google Chrome was only just starting out, a long way from being the second most widely used browser in the world.

Mozilla’s dependence on Google has always been a considerable financial risk for the browser, with the company now no longer betting the house on Google via the recent signing of agreement with other search engines – even though these don’t go as far as with Google.

Google’s Vice-President of Search, Alan Eustace, declared that Mozilla has been a "valuable partner over the years". "We look forward to continuing this great partnership in the years to come".

Product manager for the Firefox desktop browser, Asa Dotzler confirms that Google "loves" the search traffic brought by Firefox, with Mozilla obtaining solid revenue for "investments in the Open Web".

Gary Kovacs also sees 2012 as being the year that Mozilla will go beyond the desktop environment, giving the impression that they will also be building applications, digital identity management and mobile products.