Long term FireFox users will know that dropping a few keywords into the browser’s URL bar will take you to a Google search, and hopefully the results you’re looking for. But this winning partnership could be coming to an end.
Following FireFox’s ditching of the Google toolbar earlier this year, it’s been announced that Google’s search partnership with the Mozilla-built browser isn’t going to be renewed when it expires at the end of this month. And, predictably, Bing are looking to step in.
That means that from December onwards, you can look forward to receiving search results that “aren’t that much worse than Google’s” when you drop your keywords into the URL bar. Or, if you can’t wait that long, you can embrace the Google-free future of FireFox today by downloading the imaginatively-titled FireFox with Bing from the equally inventive www.firefoxwithbing.com.
But while this might seem like a bit of a coup for Bing, it’s worth remembering that Google’s own Chrome browser is widely expected to surpass FireFox as the world’s second most popular internet browser in the coming year. And once that’s happened, Chrome has only one more browser to take on and beat. Microsoft’s own (Bing-powered) Internet Explorer.
It looks like 2012 could be an intriguing year in both the search and browser wars.
Follow FirstFound on Facebook and Twitter.
