Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 26th Oct 2011 22:34 UTC
"In a move that will raise eyebrows, Mozilla is now distributing a version of Firefox that uses Bing as the default search provider instead of Google. Rest assured that this is a joint project, though: the creatively-named Firefox with Bing website is run by Microsoft, and both Mozilla and MS are clear that this is a joint venture. Now, don't get too excited - the default version of Firefox available from Mozilla.com is still backed by Google, and there's no mention of an alternative, Bingy download anywhere on the site - but it's worth noting that Mozilla has been testing Bing's capabilities using Test Pilot over the last couple of months, and the release of Firefox with Bing indicates that Mozilla is now confident in Bing's ability to provide a top-notch service to Firefox users." Test pilot or not, I'm stockpiling more baked beans.
Permalink for comment 494741
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:
2011-01-28
ssokolow,
"Depending on your definition of 'legitimate', there is. Mozilla is a non-profit, which generally means they can't afford to hire as many paid employees as a company like Google and the volunteers don't see that as an itch worth the effort to scratch."
Well, as a programmer myself, I highly doubt the reason users don't have a way to change the address bar search is due to laziness or technical difficulty. In fact it was probably a little bit more work to have two separate search functions than to share the same one. It makes much more sense to use the user's preferred search engine by default.
This is unless of course I've misread your comment completely and you are suggesting that since google pays the bills, google is entitled to the address bar searches.
"If I had my way, Firefox would incorporate an exact copy of Omnibar's remote search handiling into AwesomeBar."
It's probably time I try chrome to see what it offers. As you say, FF does have it's annoyances. For me the poor SSL handling is the major one (mozilla deliberately ignores end user complaints about it). But...it is never-the-less good enough for me.