A month ago, we wrote about how Yahoo’s deal to be the new default search engine for the Firefox browser allowed Yahoo to bite a chunk out of Google’s dominance in online search clicks.
Some predicted that bounce would drop after users switched from the Yahoo default back to their beloved Google search, but Yahoo’s gains now appear to be more sustainable.
An analysis by StatCounter shows Google took 74.8% of U.S. search referrals in January, the first time the search giant fell below 75 percent since StatCounter began counting. Microsoft’s Bing (which also powers Yahoo search) took 12.4 percent of referrals and Yahoo had 10.9 percent, its highest share in more than five years.
StatCounter also looked specifically at Firefox users since Yahoo signed a deal with Mozilla in November, finding that Yahoo-on-Firefox grew to 28.3 percent from 9.9 percent in November 2014 to 28.3%; while Google-on-Firefox usage dropped to 63.9 percent from 81.9 percent.
“When we removed Firefox usage from the U.S. search data, Yahoo’s gains and Google’s losses were erased,” wrote StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen in a statement Monday. “This highlights the importance of the default search option and the significance of the upcoming Safari search deal for the major players.”
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has made clear she’s interested in replacing Google this year as the default search option on Apple’s Safari browser.
Above: Pick a sport, and Yahoo has a ball for it at the Yahoo! Company Store in Sunnyvale.
