Firefox NOT Loyal to Google ...Yahoo! Fights for Asia
In Asia, Firefox ships with Yahoo! as the default search. A clear departure from the world Google once knew:
Google ships as the default search engine in the Firefox search box and as the default start page when the browser loads. That kind of distribution has to rank up there with Internet Explorer shipping with every PC. And the Mozilla Foundation has benefitted too, reaping untold millions from Google as part of the deal.
So the news that Yahoo has nailed the same kind of agreement with Firefox in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan could be a big deal.
Is Google letting their guard down? Or is Firefox trying to keep Google honest on rev share? What happens when MSN starts buying searchers?
Yahoo! isn't just stopping at the browser either. Shak reports they are giving Google ad resellers an ultimatum:
Yahoo China has told online advertising reseller Splendor Technology, which was recently named a Google AdWords reseller, to choose between Google and Yahoo, reports Beijing Star Daily.
evolution
After Mozilla created the for-profit and revealed the millions it earned from "search" (i.e. Google) I saw plenty of blogging about such "search money". You have to figure the price of embedded search preference would rise, the for-profit entity would shop the uncontracted markets, and the other players would bid for them. I even think that Flock was looking forward to monetizing that sooner rather than later (baseless peanut gallery thoughts, of course).
I'll look for the link, but one of those Silicon Valley guys wrote about Mozilla's plans for 1.5 and 2.0 in the area of funded embedded search segmented by market a few months ago.