No financial terms were announced, but Mozilla’s blog post says the agreement extends the companies’ agreement “for at least three additional years.”

The renewal comes about three weeks after the previous contract expired. The two companies previously had another three-year deal that expired at the end of November. A couple quotes from the Mozilla announcement:

“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,” said Gary Kovacs, CEO, Mozilla.

“Mozilla has been a valuable partner to Google over the years and we look forward to continuing this great partnership in the years to come,” said Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President of Search, Google.

The deal’s importance to Mozilla can hardly be understated. Earlier this year, the company revealed that 98% of its revenue comes from search royalties.

Postscript, December 22: As we’ve reported on Marketing Land, reports are circulating today that the Google-Mozilla is triple the amount that Google spent in 2010 to be the default search engine in Firefox.

Although I’m a Firefox user, last week’s update was not a big deal for me.

Why?

I’ve had access to Twitter’s search engine and Twitter’s “who to follow” database from my Firefox search box for a long time. In fact, I have had access to many search engines, library catalogs, database lookups, and other searchable databases I use a lot, want to demo, or use often.

Plus, I decide what search tools to add, remove, and how to order the resources I select.

How do I do it?

No, I don’t use Mycroft extensions and I’m not a developer so this does not involve any coding.

Say hello to a new, free Firefox add-on called “Add to Search Bar”.

With this free tool I’m able to quickly and easily add most search tools to my search bar without having to code or download anything but the add-on itself, and I only had to do that once.

Adding any search tool to your Firefox search bar takes only a few clicks and is completed in a matter of seconds.

Let’s say you want to add the Search Engine Land database of archived posts to your search bar.

Here’s the entire process that should take you only a few seconds.

1. Install the Add-On (you’ll only need to do this once).

2. Head to a SEL page and look for the search box on the site.

2. Select the search box.

3. Right-click in the box and the select “Add to Search Bar” from the drop-down menu

4. Next, approve the addition. You can also rename the search resource, add a keyword (or single letter) to trigger the search from the navigation toolbar, and even change the icon.

5. Click save

6. That’s it, you’re done, and Search Engine Land (or whatever you’ve named it) should now be located in your search bar.

How fast and easy was that? By the way, when you select the search bar you’ll spot “Manage Search Engines” at the bottom of the drop down.

Selecting this option allows you to reorder and remove search tools from the search bar. You’re also able to assign a letter or keyword so you can run the search from the navigation bar.

For example, when I want to search for Search Engine Land posts about AdSense or AdWords, I would type [SEL AdWords OR AdSense] directly into the address bar and click enter.

Firefox developer Malte Kraus (aka Dr. Evil), deserves the credit for not only creating this tool but for continuing to tweak the code to make the add-on more stable and ready to go.

If you like Add to Search Bar, you might also want to take a look at another add-on from Kraus named Organize Search Engines. It lets you add separators and folders to your search bar search engines.

Taking a few minutes perhaps once or twice a week to review and build your collection of go to search tools can pay off both in saving time and getting you the best results possible.

Vertical search companies might also want to suggest this resource to their users as a way to get their search tool into the search bar of users.

Finally, iOS users might want to take a look at something similar (in terms of personalization and ease of use) with a $.99 app that we’ve been testing (so far, so good) named Search Ninja. More about this app soon.

As Mozilla’s blog post explains, the Twitter search option can be used to search Twitter usernames, hashtags and topics (without hashtags). It’s available in four languages: English, Portuguese, Slovenian and Japaneses. Mozilla says more languages will be enabled in future releases.

Twitter search was previously available as a separate add-on for the Firefox search bar. Today’s news means that Firefox users won’t have to go find the add-on if they want quick access to Twitter search.

Deals like this have historically involved payment of some kind. We asked Twitter for confirmation of any financial arrangements between it and Mozilla; our request was sent to Mozilla’s PR team and a spokesperson told us they have nothing to share about the business aspect of today’s announcement.

Mozilla recently revealed that 98% of its revenue comes from existing search deals with Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. The company’s deal with Google is due to expire this month.

Firefox With Bing

In a blog post today, Bing invites people to download a version of “Firefox With Bing” where Bing is used as the default search engine for the Firefox search box and for searches conducted from the “AwesomeBar” address window:

In most countries, Firefox uses Google as its default search engine, thanks to a deal between Google and Firefox. Until last year, Bing wasn’t even an alternative option offered within the browser.

Bing: Any Browser Is A Good Browser

A Bing-Firefox deal last year finally fixed that issue. But today’s news is something entirely in its own league, a Microsoft division encouraging people to download a rival product of another division.

But it’s that type of attitude that I wrote in 2008 Microsoft needed to take, if it wanted to really win in search:

For Microsoft to succeed in search, I want them to forget how search integrates with Windows or Internet Explorer (sidenote: after being integrated in various ways for a decade now, clearly that’s not going to be a Google-killing tactic). Forget how search might tie into Office. Use Macs. Use Firefox. Hell, use Google Chrome. I want search products that succeed on their own.

Defaults Aren’t What You Assume

By the way, Bing is not the default in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, as some people assume. To my understanding, it’s the default only where it has done deals with hardware manufacturers or in the rare case when Internet Explorer is installed on a “clean” computer with no prior operating system.

As for Google’s Chrome, Google has usually been the default there, unless you install Chrome on a computer where Google is not already the default in another browser. In those cases, it typically has asked if you want to change to Google search.

Recently, however, I’ve noticed that on Apple computers, installing Chrome causes it to deliberately ask if you want to use Google, Yahoo or Bing. This has happened to me twice in the past two weeks. Potentially, the same is now happening on Windows computers. I just haven’t done any installs on them, recently.

For related news on the topic, see Techmeme.

Mozilla said it earned $121.1 million in revenue in 2010, up 19.3% from 2009′s $101.5 million. Even with the growth of Google Chrome, Mozilla increased revenues through this model in 2010; will it in 2011?

Mozilla said:

The majority of Mozilla’s revenue continues to be generated from the search functionality included in our Mozilla’s Firefox product through all major search partners including Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Amazon, eBay and others.

Google and Mozilla’s search partnership deal is up for renewal this November, after extending their deal three years ago. We have to assume the deal will be renewed, despite some tension between the two organizations.

Related Articles:

• Google & Mozilla Extend Default Firefox Search Provider Deal
• Mozilla Folks Attack Google On Privacy; Will Bing Finally Be Admitted Into The Firefox Club?
• Firefox: Google’s Secret Weapon Against Microsoft?
• Hey Firefox – Let Us Pick Our Own Search Engine!

Google said the Google Toolbar works in versions of Firefox 4 or younger, but not the new version 5 of Firefox. Google explained, “many features that were once offered by Google Toolbar for Firefox are now already built right into the browser.” So Google has decided the toolbar doesn’t offer enough of a value-add on Firefox and thus is no longer supporting it.

The Google Toolbar was first introduced over years ago for Firefox. Then later came to Internet Explorer. As you know, Google has their own browser, Chrome, without support for the Google Toolbar – but like they said above, Google’s Chrome browser has many of the toolbar features built directly into the browser.

Alex Chitu said that you can still run the Google Toolbar on Firefox 5 if you install the add on compatibility reporter.

This makes for the third Google service closing in two days, we had Google Labs shutting down and the Google Directory closing.

Postscript From Danny Sullivan: It’s rather stunning to see this closure. For one, Google uses the toolbar to track user behavior. It’s one way that Google gets site speed data that in turn is used to influence its search results. Many suspect that that surfing behavior is also used. The article below has more:

• Turning The Tables On The Google Toolbar & Disclosure Claims

The argument that many features of the Google Toolbar are built into the browser doesn’t wash. Firefox doesn’t offer a native way to perform site-specific search, not to view cached pages, nor to perform specific vertical searches on Google, not to get PageRank data.

Firefox also doesn’t feed back into Google Web History. Only the Google Toolbar does that, which means Google has now permanently broken a part of personalized search for Firefox users going forward (and made no mention of this in its help pages). More about how the toolbar works with personalization is below:

• Google Search History Expands, Becomes Web History
• Google Now Personalizes Everyone’s Search Results

Why would Google do such a thing, cutting both users off from their personalized data and itself off from receiving that information? My guess is that Firefox users weren’t found to be using the PageRank meter much (which in turn enables Web History / personalization).

Google’s never had a Google Toolbar for Chrome, so it has likewise been blind to getting information about site speed or user behavior through it, at least if you believe what Google says about not monitoring what people do in Chrome.

This leaves Internet Explorer as the only browser with support, unless you want to stay with an older version of Firefox. However, I’d recommend Groowe as a solution for the toolbar-less on Firefox 5.  It’s a long-standing plug-in that mimic most of the major features of the Google Toolbar, plus other search engine toolbars. I’ve happily used it for years.

Related Stories:

• Google Instant Now On New Google Toolbar 7
• Google Toolbar For Firefox Adds Chrome-Like “Most Visited Sites” Tab
• Google Toolbar For IE Adds “Advanced” Translation
• Google Toolbar 6 For IE Adds Search To Windows Task Bar
• Google Toolbar For Firefox 3.0 Adds Great Features
• Disabling The Google Toolbar Doesn’t Stop Google From Tracking You
• Turning The Tables On The Google Toolbar & Disclosure Claims

There are lots of different ways to speed up searching. Google, Bing and Yahoo all offer browser toolbars — no need to visit their home pages, just search wherever you are. Google and Yahoo both have their own versions of “instant search,” where search results appear as you type. Google’s Chrome web browser lets you search right from the browser address bar.

And they all fall short of my new favorite search tool: Slashtag.it. If you’re really looking to search faster, this is the way to do it.

Slashtag.it isn’t a search engine; it’s an interface that lets you access several dozen search engines more quickly. It does this via simple slashtag commands – one for each of a couple dozen different search sites. (You might think Blekko coined the term “slashtag,” but the term was actually first used in relation to Twitter in late 2009.)

If you wanted to search for U2, for example, across several different sites, there’s no need to visit them all and type “u2″ into their search boxes. You can do it all via Slashtag.it, like this:

Amazon.com

YouTube:

Bing Images:

Facebook:

There are currently about 60 slashtags supported (including Search Engine Land) and a form to suggest new ones that you’d like added. Slashtag.it supports pretty much all of the main search sites and a few cool ones like Netflix, Evernote and Dropbox. (If you’re logged in to your Dropbox account, typing “somekeyword /db” searches your stored files; too cool.)

Perhaps best of all, you don’t have to visit Slashtag.it to use the service. You can make it the default search tool on your Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer or Opera browser; it can also be added as an extra toolbar on Safari, though it won’t function as part of the main search box there.

And, Slashtag.it doesn’t have to replace your primary search engine; if you use it without typing a slashtag, it’ll send your search term to your preferred search engine. (So, if I just type “u2″ with nothing else, it does that search on Google.)

Example: Searching for Maui, Hawaii Information

I’ve been using Slashtag.it to research a trip later this year to Maui. The first thing I did was install Slashtag.it as my default search engine in Firefox.

The Old Way

Before using Slashtag.it, my process for comparing Google and Bing Maps would’ve been something like this:

1. Type “maui snorkeling” in the search box and click to search Google.
2. Click the “Maps” link in the menu above Google’s search results, or click the big map graphic in the right column to reach Google Maps.
3. Change my search option in Firefox to Bing and repeat the search. (as shown above)
4. Click the “Maps” link in the menu above Bing’s results.

The New Way

After adding Slashtag.it as a search option in Firefox, that process became:

1. Type “maui snorkeling /m” to search directly on Google Maps.
2. Change the “m” to “bmaps” and search directly on Bing Maps.

That’s half the steps, less time using the mouse, and much faster overall.

Final Thoughts

The hardest thing about using Slashtag.it is remembering all the tags that are available, but they’re all pretty self-explanatory and several times I’ve guessed right (/flickr and /itunes, for example).

It’s such a simple and useful tool, I can’t help but wonder why one of the big search engines didn’t think of it first. If you only ever use Google, for example, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to type “maui snorkeling /maps” and Google would know you want to skip Google.com and search Google Maps?

Still, that would only work for Google properties. If you want a faster way to search several dozen different sites, Slashtag.it is the way to go.

Postscript From Danny Sullivan: You can, of course, do these things with Blekko, which debuted the “slashtag” concept back in October (see Blekko: New Search Engine Lets You “Spin” The Web and Blekko, The “Slashtag” Search Engine, Goes Live). For example, you can add the commands below to match any of the same searches above that Slashtag.it does:

• Amazon = /amazon
• YouTube = /youtube
• Bing Images = /images (Blekko image search is Bing Images)

Blekko lacks a /facebook option that I can see, which is very nice in how Slashtag.it provides it. But Blekko provides a huge number of of other slashtags plus provides the ability for anyone to create their own.

If you like the concept at Slashtag.it, then you should love it over at Blekko. As for Blekko, it doesn’t love the idea that Slashtag.it is using the “slashtag” name that it has trademarked. I’d expect that will likely be forced to change.

As for the concept itself, of adding a few things to search words to get focused results — those are generically referred to as search commands. Google offers a number of these itself, some that generate direct answers and some that let you narrow to a particular site (interesting, Google no longer lists some commands that work such as link: and allintitle:).

Search commands have been around for ages, but the idea of “command line” searches got attention back in 2005, when YubNub launched. The service, which still operates, allows people to enter searches preceded by commands to get back particular results. For example:

• am + word = Amazon search for that word

Another service that also came to light in 2005 is Ambedo, which also still operates. As with YubNub, you enter the “tag” of a particular search you want to do (searching Amazon = amazon) followed by the search term.

Postscript from Matt: You can do something similar with Blekko, but there’s a key difference. When you use a slashtag on Blekko, you’re searching the pages from the other site that Blekko has indexed; you’re not searching the actual site.

For example, if I do a search on Blekko for “u2 /amazon,” I get 16 results from Blekko. But Amazon has hundreds of U2 products on sale. If I do the same slashtagged search result on Slashtag.it, I get the full set of matches and I’m on Amazon.com already where I can begin shopping right away — no extra clicks.

Although the concept is similar, Slashtag.it is really a different experience than Blekko — one that I’d argue is much better.

The new toolbar, which is graphically more pleasing to look at than a conventional toolbar, enables users to get lots of different types of information via drop-down windows: news, weather, maps, multiple email accounts, movies, games and so on — in addition to search.

Users can obtain and interact with their Facebook feeds, for example, without going to the site. In this way it sort of borrows from Bing’s philosophy of enabling users to quickly get to information or complete tasks without having to click through or down a level to another site.

These content modules effectively operate like browser tabs and diminish the need (for some) to have 15 tabs open simultaneously.

For regular Bing users as well as non-users it’s a useful tool — so to speak. Unfortunately there’s no Mac version and it only works with IE (7 or later). On a Windows machine you need Windows 7; Windows Vista; Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 3.

Weitz said that 12 percent of all searches happen through toolbars. However he was unaware of the precise number of Bing searches in particular happening via toolbars. Microsoft has used computer hardware OEM-toolbar distribution deals in the past as a cornerstone of its new customer acquisition strategy for Bing.

We didn’t get visibility on whether Bing toolbar users are more engaged and loyal than other types of Bing users. I would assume they are however. Bing also captures valuable clickstream data from toolbars (if permitted by users).

And now for the unpleasant part where I allude to the Google-Bing “copygate” controversy. Those who wish to revisit the claims and responses can click the links below. Now back to Bing; if I were a regular PC user I would definitely install the Bing Bar and use it. Unfortunately, however, my primary computer is a Mac.

As a final thought, someone at Microsoft ought to either buy or sponsor a local Seattle watering hole and get the owner to rename it . . . you guessed it: the “Bing Bar.”

For related stories on this across the web, see here on Techmeme. Also see below for past stories related to this topic from Search Engine Land.

Related Entries:

• Colbert: “Hiybbprqag Is A Word Meaning You Got Served”
• Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
• Bing Admits Using Customer Search Data, Says Google Pulled ‘Spy-Novelesque Stunt’
• Bing: ‘We Do Not Copy Results. Period.’
• Google On Toolbar: We Don’t Use Bing’s Searches
• Microsoft Releases New MSN Toolbar, Now Powered By Bing
• Microsoft Launches A New Loyalty Program: Bing Rewards

Behavioral targeting are a form of ads that use your online behavior to target specific ads to you, as you browse the web. Google calls these interest based advertising but most of the web calls them behavioral targeting.

Google released a new Chrome extension named Keep My Opt-Outs. The extension helps block some of the personalized advertising and related data tracking performed by companies. I should note, Google has an older Chrome extension named IAB Opt Out that blocked Google’s interest based ads. This new extension works more broadly.

Firefox said they are working on a solution for a new version of Firefox. Alex Fowler from Firefox said:

As the first of many steps, we are proposing a feature that allows users to set a browser preference that will broadcast their desire to opt-out of third party, advertising-based tracking by transmitting a Do Not Track HTTP header with every click or page view in Firefox. When the feature is enabled and users turn it on, web sites will be told by Firefox that a user would like to opt-out of OBA. We believe the header-based approach has the potential to be better for the web in the long run because it is a clearer and more universal opt-out mechanism than cookies or blacklists.

As I said at the Search Engine Roundtable, I suspect adoption of such extensions or turning on blocking will be used at a very very limited basis. So advertisers and publishers really do not need to worry about reduced advertising or marketing. But if you are a person who is worried about this, you now have some tools to help protect your privacy.

Related Stories:

• Google Gets Into Behavioral Targeting, Launches “Interest-Based …
• How Many Google Privacy Policies Are You Violating?
• Yahoo Introduces “Ad Interest Manager”: Allows Opt-In And Out Of …
• Privacy Concerns, Online Ad Targeting On Apparent Collision Course
• Behavioral Targeting Is Easier Than You Think
• How Microsoft’s Behavioral Targeting Works
• Consumer Groups Trying To Preempt Behavioral Targeting For Mobile Ads

Is Facebook’s third largest advertiser really a site that tries to trick people into switching to Bing? Apparently not. Still, Bing’s not happy with the tactics and is ending its relationship with the publisher.

The site, Make-My-Baby.com, now appears to have gone down. But earlier today, it was suggesting that people needed a plug-in to use it — one that would install a toolbar and change their search provider and home page to Bing. The site had allowed people to create baby characters.

Not Facebook’s 3rd Biggest Advertiser

An Ad Age article suggests that Make-My-Baby is Facebook’s third largest advertiser, based on a comScore report. But comScore tells me this isn’t so.

“Make-my-baby was not one of the top advertisers on Facebook,” emailed spokesperson Andrew Lipsman.

Postscript (2:40ET): Facebook also tells me that Make My Baby isn’t an advertiser at all. From an email that spokesperson Brandon McCormick sent:

Not only is make-my-baby.com not one of our largest advertisers, they are not an advertiser at all.  In fact, their practices are against our ad policies and would be rejected as a result.  This is true whether they tried to run ads with us or an affiliate did.

Postscript (3:00 ET): I’ve now got a copy of the comScore report. It looks at total display ad impressions for the “social networking” category in the third quarter of last year. That category includes buys on MySpace and Facebook (and according to comScore, a few smaller social networking sites).

Make-My-Baby.com is indeed the number three on this list, which means it is the third biggest SOCIAL NETWORKING advertiser according to comScore but not necessarily the third biggest Facebook advertiser (nor did Ad Age explicitly say this). Most ad impressions in this category apparently come from Facebook, but in this case, apparently its MySpace buys that were putting Make-My-Baby tops, given Facebook is denying this company advertised at all. But I’m checking on that.

Bing Affiliate Outed By Google

The Ad Age article caught the attention of the head of Google’s search spam fighting team — and unofficial defender of all things Google — Matt Cutts. Cutts did a post noting that the Make-My-Baby site had terms that required a switch to Bing:

If make-my-baby.com is Facebook’s 3rd biggest advertiser, I wonder how many people are installing this software without reading the fine print that says “Installing the toolbar includes managing the browser default search settings and setting your homepage to bing.com” ?

Read Write Web picked up on Cutts’ post, spreading the news about the tricky move. From there, it attracted further attention on the news aggregator Techmeme.

Tricky Switch

Actually, you didn’t have to drill into the fine print of the site’s terms and conditions page to learn this. When you’d first visit the site, you’d get a big “Plugin Required” message as shown above [picture from Read Write Web, as the original site is now down]. Directly below that was a message that explained that a toolbar would be installed and implying that your search provider and home page would be switched to Bing.

Still, to me, it was a pretty tricky move. There was no easy way to “exit out” from having the plugin installed other than to close the page itself. It’s likely plenty of people installed the toolbar when they might not have wanted to — and were switched to Bing.

Bing Fires Affiliate, Er, Publisher

I asked Bing about the affiliate. It commented:

Distribution deals and affiliate programs are an important part of how all search engines introduce their products to customers. That said, we have been made aware of some practices that are in conflict with Bing’s principles and are addressing them directly with this affiliate partner.

It’s not clear if the affiliate will be dropped entirely. The specific landing page people were switched to, http://mmb.bingstart.com, continues to operate with a “ZUGO” code that stands for what appears to be Make-My-Baby’s parent company. That suggests the affiliate may still be earning for searches.

Postscript (2:15 ET): Bing has now sent an updated statement:

Distribution deals and affiliate programs are an important part of how all search engines introduce their product to customers.   That said, we have been made aware of some practices from a specific publisher that are not compliant with the guidelines, best practices and principles put in place by Bing.  As a result, the relationship with this publisher will be terminated.

I’ve bolded the key change. Rather than “address” issues, Bing is now terminating the relationship. Bing also says the company wasn’t an affiliate but rather “a publisher who has a relationship with one of our distribution partners.”

I’m assuming this means that Make-My-Baby was a distribution partner for the Zugo toolbar and that Bing will retain a relationship with Zugo but has effectively told Zugo to fire Make-My-Baby.

Bing declined to answer how long it has been running this type of affiliate program, how it solicits people to be in it (is there a self-serve option?) or how much it pays.

Postscript (5:25 ET): OK, I have some more answers from Bing. Make-My-Baby was an affiliate of Zugo. I asked how Bing could directly fire a Zugo affiliate and was given a non-answer:

In any Bing distribution program, there are guidelines that must be followed to ensure a positive experience for customers.  We were made aware of a particular publisher who was not in compliance with those guidelines, and that publisher is no longer part of this program.

The actual answer remains that Bing probably cannot “fire” a Zugo affiliate but rather can tell Zugo that one of its affiliates is violating Bing’s distribution requirements to pressure Zugo to act.

As for Zugo, Iwas told it is not an affiliate but rather distribution partner. What’s the difference? Bing said:

It’s really a distinction without a difference.

Bing also confirmed that it continues to have a relationship with Zugo. That also means that all the people who had their pages changed by Make-My-Baby will continue to get redirected to the benefit of both Zugo and Bing, as best I can tell, despite the fact that they were obtained in a way that Bing disagrees with.

Bing: Google Did It Too!

When Bing emailed me with info for the 5:25ET postscript I integrated above, it also said:

No one, including Google who also uses distribution channels like OurBabyMaker.com, wants to have their brand associated with a negative customer experience.

Hmm. OK, I’ll bite. I headed over to that site:

Its not run by Google. It is run by IAC, which has distribution deals with Google, especially through toolbars that it owns.

Installing the software instantly caused my anti-virus software to jump in and scream that it wouldn’t let me install it. I’m not inclined to test it more. But if I had, I get the impression I’d have ended up with the Smiley Central toolbar or some variant, which may have shifted my defaults over to Ask (complete with Google ads) or perhaps to Google. I’m checking with Google on this.

Ben Edelman — who has consulted for Microsoft in the past and is involved in a lawsuit against Google — has documented some of the changes that the IAC toolbar has done on the past (see here and here)

Bing & Buying Traffic

Bing has tried a variety of things to attract searchers to its search engine, most recently, Bing Rewards — which gives credits that can be redeemed for prizes. SearchPerks was an earlier incarnation of that. Cashback gave discounts on purchases.

Of course, Bing is not alone in trying to buy search traffic. Google has done plenty of distribution deals itself. In fact, like many search engines back in the late 1990s, Google even ran its own affiliate program that paid $0.03 for each search an affiliate generated.

Ah, but Google never tricked anyone into changing their defaults! Sure, nothing like what the Bing affiliate above was doing comes immediately to mind, though I’m sure there were similar examples that didn’t get wide attention. But then again, Google — which preaches about how everything should be “open” and that people should have choice — is hardly squeaky clean when it comes to generating search traffic.

Google & Buying Traffic

Google & Dell’s Revenue-Generating URL Error Pages Drawing Fire covers a deal — now ended — with Dell that caused some people to wonder why they’d end up on ad-filled pages powered by Google, when entering an incorrect URL.

Hey Firefox – Let Us Pick Our Own Search Engine! covers how Google has long been the default search engine on Firefox — no need to “trick” anyone into this, since Google bought that distribution, despite arguing that the EU should force Microsoft to make people choose in Internet Explorer. Bing is finally being allowed as a choice on Firefox after years of being blocked — and then, not until Firefox 4 (see Firefox 4 To Add Bing As Search Option).

Enough With The Switching

None of this excuses what the Bing affiliate was doing. Ideally, I’d like to see both Bing and Google come together on a common site where people could go and easily detect if their search provider or home page has been changed in a way they don’t like — and easily fix that. Both companies have fought directly and through proxies to change user settings. I’ve had my fill of emails from people confused about what happened to them, when this type of switch happens.