Firefox users take note. Your Web searches will soon be routed through the Yahoo search engine by default, thanks to a five-year deal between Mozilla, Firefox's creator, and Yahoo.
Web-industry analysts note that the switch, scheduled to occur next month, might lift the popularity of the Yahoo search engine. (In the first quarter of 2014, Yahoo handled 10 percent of all online search queries compared with nearly 68 percent for first-place Google, according to SearchEngineWatch.com.)
But with just slightly more than 14 percent all Web browsing being done via Firefox, how much of a traffic boost could this Firefox deal give Yahoo? Likely not much, especially since changing the default search engine in Firefox is not exactly rocket science. Here's how:
Step 1: Launch Firefox.
Step 2: Locate the "search field," which is usually to the right of the URL address bar at the top of the browser window.
Step 3: Click on the down arrow next to the "Y" (for "Yahoo") and choose which search engine (Google, Bing, etc.) you'd rather use by default.
Once you've made this change, your choice will be used whether you enter your query in Firefox's search box, URL address bar, or search field of a new browser tab.
For more information, watch the 30-second how-to video on Firefox's support page.
And since you might need a new device to do all that searching, find the best computer or tablet.
—Paul Eng
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