Ubuntu is switching the default search from Google to Yahoo!
Those of you testing out the development version of Ubuntu Lucid should notice a change in Firefox very soon. The default search provider for new installations of Ubuntu Lucid (10.04) and upgrades will be Yahoo! and not Google. Canonical have struck a revenue sharing deal with Yahoo! which generates income for the company. This revenue should help pay the wages of Ubuntu Developers employed by Canonical, and support the infrastructure required to develop and build the distribution.
So when using the search box in the top right corner of Firefox on Ubuntu, you’ll be taken to a Yahoo! results page rather than the old default Google one. If you are upgrading to Ubuntu 10.04 and you had Google as your search provider (the previous default) then this will change to Yahoo!. You can of course change the search provider, this is merely the default for Lucid. Doing so will mean your search revenue won’t go via Yahoo! to Canonical. That’s your choice, clearly.
In addition, the browser ‘start page’ – that is the page you see initially when you open the browser – will reflect whatever the default search provider is. So in the top right, if you choose ‘Google’ you’ll get the Google start page, and conversely if you choose ‘Yahoo!’ you’ll get the Yahoo! start page when you first open the browser. Again, you can change the start page to be blank or use some other search provider. These are just the new defaults.
It’s possible that additional search vendors may be added to the list – Bing anyone? – but it seems that for Lucid there will be at least the two mentioned above. Users who already run Ubuntu and are upgrading to Lucid, but don’t use Google won’t notice a difference, but they’re welcome to manually switch to the new Yahoo! search provider if they want to financially support the Ubuntu project that way.
No doubt this will cause some consternation within the Ubuntu community, as many find changes to “their” browser to be tantamount to breaking and entering their home. Indeed when these things were previously messed with there were a few heated complaints and reports of broken-ness.
Hopefully the dialog on this change will remain civil and, well.. lucid.
203 Comments
? i hope your kidding. it’s hard to even begin to reply to such a stupid comment.how could they manage all these things you talk about when it’s open source? if they attempted this, contributors would simply remove the ads and fork the project.you know ubuntu did have a default search engine before this don’t you? would you rather there was no search capability by default? did you know that the only reason firefox is free is due to the google search revenue sharing deal? would you rather pay for a browser?
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I think they’re on about 10 – 12 million users these days though.
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1) "This is just cononical being pwned by m$" WTF?2) "cononical" WTF?3) "m$" WTF?
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You haven’t spent more than 20 seconds on any Linux distro, have you?
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Meh, if Canonical have identified this as a good move, I can’t say that it annoys me that much. It only takes a few seconds to change back to Google.Just out of interest, I was at a clients office today and she used Yahoo as her home page. I was in a rush to find some things so I used Yahoo a couple of times. The results weren’t THAT bad, but Google still owns search.
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politics…
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Wait Isn’t Canonical helping Google on a project right now?
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I don’t really care what search engine they use, but doesn’t Microsoft get paid a bit when people use Yahoo? In general, the less money Microsoft makes, the better off society is IMO.
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Who cares. Anyone using Ubuntu is smart enough to switch the default browser themselves. It’s the cattle that use Windows that are the problem.
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If you’re smart enough to know how to use Ubuntu, you’re smart enough to know to change it right back to Google the first time.
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I will just change it right back.
"did you know that the only reason firefox is free is due to the google search revenue sharing deal?"If you’re going to shit on someone else’s parade you might want to get your facts straight first. Firefox has always been free because it is Open Source, not because of Google. Firefox was created by the Mozilla Foundation, not the Mozilla Corporation. The foundation is an open source organization who were primarily known for the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine that was (and still is) used in several open source projects, including Firefox, Thunderbird and many many other web-centric applications developed by Mozilla and others.Firefox was nothing more than a cool pet project that one of the Mozilla developers had going on the side for a while. His only objective was to create a faster, less bloated, more streamlined browser to show off to his friends. Oddly enough, those particular qualities caught on and the foundation took on Firefox as one of their own open source projects. It is still one of their open source projects.The Mozilla Corporation was founded when to everyone’s surprise Google offered to pay money to be made the default search engine. The Mozilla Foundation had no idea what to do with one dollar, much less the 50 million offered by Google. Hence, the Mozilla Corp was founded with the purpose of investing any revenues made from Mozilla products into R&D and marketing. Thus, the Foundation still controls the projects and oversees their development; the Corp is essentially the marketing and business arm but has no direct control over the projects themselves.Hope that was educational. As always, Wikipedia has the whole story.
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Agreed. Hell even Chrome pops up a thing asking what search engine you want and thats made by Google.
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Google bought Ubuntu 9.10 to make chrome os, now Yahoo! wants one too.
Its the age of commercial Linux desktops owned by smily companies. Its all good, make sure you get useta chrome br. .
Exactly. If you don’t use Yahoo, Canonical doesn’t get paid, and your Ubuntu dies due to lack of funding.So as varun1s said. Go ahead, change it back. Cheer and jeer all you want.But you’re wrong.
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It’s not exactly a one-time check. You have to use Yahoo for them to get the majority of their benefits.But I didn’t expect you to think that far ahead.
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I agree with you on the M$ and the last misspelling, but he’s dead-on with his point.If you switch it back, Canonical doesn’t get paid, and Ubuntu suffers.
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Canonical will be getting paid when you use Yahoo.But go ahead and switch it back to Google. It just give Canonical less incentive to bring you the next version of the software.I’m sure they’d be happy to do it with no revenue.
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Sigh, it’s a short road now to installing a "custom yahoo linux search widget" and "get best deals now" icon on the desktop. It’s only three clicks to remove them, so they won’t hurt, right?
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Heh, glad to see Ubuntu is making some bank. At any rate I will quick install Chrome on any Ubuntu system… so firefox can use what ever default search it wants to (and it is an easy swap)
~Jeff
I agree that individuals are shafting Canonical by switching back to Google as their search provider, but "M$" certainly aren’t shafting them.Don’t get me wrong, Microsoft do shaft everyone in many ways.
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i rather prefer altavista
Shame first this I do now is install google chrome and will keep google as default
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Well the default Ubuntu skin isn’t great so you gotta change that too, and the font size…
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I’ll simply switch it back to Google.
Okay, there have been literally 20 comments above you about the same thing, original much?
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Cool story bro.
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Eh, i have been using the chrome beta for the past several months and its my new default browser. Therefore, this new update will be irrelevant to me.
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you had me until you started blabbering about 9/11. and I was going to bury the ‘cool story bro’ guy, but now he’s dugg.you did it to yourself.
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===SYSTEM MESSAGE===============================X=| Your browser start page has been defaulted to Yahoo.com || however it has been changed to google.com. || Funding from yahoo helps keep this software free. || ________ || 5…………4…………….3……………2…………….1…… | (ok) || ““““““`
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I honestly think 90% of the Ubuntu users won’t give a shit, and will change it anyway.It will keep them in the 1% of the desktop range, but that’s their choice.
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so you think firefox would be as good as it is without mozilla corporation?like you said, firefox was nothing more than a cool pet project. that 50 million went toward making the browser better. firefox was never anywhere near being the fastest browser before the mozilla corporation existed. last i checked the most talented developers don’t work for free.you really think mozilla foundation couldn’t find a use for one single dollar? mozilla corporation was necessary to fund firefox development which includes full time paid developers and includes the ability to turn a profit for profit’s sake unlike a non-profit (duh)like it or not, when large corporations support open source projects, everyone benefits. many open source projects would not even be relevant technologies without commercial backing. ubuntu, openoffice, cups, fedora, mysql, webkit, holy shit i can’t even name a relevant open source project without corporate financial backing.so maybe you’re right, firefox would still be free without the backing of the mozilla corporation, but it just plain and simple wouldn’t be any good.
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OH..MY..GOD..Do you realize how stupid your comments are bjornski??..Do you realize how much your mind is being controlled by money right now?..Yahoo has basically turned you in to a yahoo-advocating cyborg just by striking some shabby deal with ubuntu..Did you like yahoo this much before now??.. Did you go around pointing fingers at people who do not use yahoo? Am *I* really going to be the reason ubuntu "dies due to lack of funding" from merely using google just like I always have and always will?..Company ethics happen to mean a lot to me, and google shines very brightly as far as open-source things go.. Most companies are all about greed and money.. Google is very different..One main reason I would not use windows is because microsoft is an evil piece of crap..You need to back off of trying to persuade every one of your online friends to start using yahoo just because you think it will save the world or whatever.. Yahoo is not exactly a company I favor at the moment..Also, as much as I hate to say this, my respect for canonical has dropped ever-so-slightly too because of this deal.. They have done a lot for linux.. But in some thing free and open-source like linux and ubuntu, money should not dictate which software does or does not go in to a distrobution, or dictate default settings such as search engines.. The search engine being easy to change back to google is beside the point..If canonical can be bought-out to change the search engine, they can be bought-out to do other things as well..
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Canonical is one of those companies that I like sometimes, but annoys me other times.
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most lkiely
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Let’s see. Google has cooperated with Open Source software and even goes out of their way to make a Linux capable Chrome browser. Yahoo has NEVER cooperated with Open Source software in any manner and doesn’t even bother to make messenger for Linux.
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I don’t really care, default search for me is (and will alway be) Wikipedia. Homepage is currently google…
I am extremely disappointed by this move. Enough of Canonical gimmicks. Ubuntu is no longer that holier-than-thou OS. Maybe it should sell out to Microsoft or Apple now that values have taken a back seat.
If you ask me, if Canonical were so desperate for funds, I am more than willing to put up Pepsi/Coca Cola wallpapers to help them do it. Canonical is trying to make this a no-big-deal kind of thingy. But I’m sure, like me many will now be questioning Ubuntu’s importance and its relevance to the development of Linux as an open-source OS, standing up tall inspite of pressures from giants like Microsoft and Apple.
Canonical gimmicks? I fail to see how this is a gimmick and indeed can’t think of any other actions they have done that could be seen as gimmicks either. Maybe I’m to close to notice, enlighten me.
As for ‘holier-than-thou’, I don’t think Ubuntu is, or indeed aspires to be that. It’s always shipped non-free binary blobs in the form of firmware (for example for DVB cards) and makes it easy to install non-free software. Surely Debian, gNewsense or Gentoo would be better with that moniker.
So they are breaking the internet for a lot of users, for money.
it seems that Microsoft will be paying people for using Ubuntu
I prefer Google and I know more then 70% of the people in Ubuntu Community will prefer Google.
Seems a bit daft to me.
The large majority of people use google as their search engine.
If Canonical wants Ubuntu to continue to become more mainstream, a move like this isn’t going to help garner support. It fits with the ‘fugly’, ‘niche’, ‘odd’, stereotype that some people associate with a linux desktop.
Rather than switch for them, it’s better to encourage people to make the switch themselves. This is the kind of behaviour that led people to hate Microsoft.
Good for them to make some good cash off yahoo. I never keep the default page, so dont really care.
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Who cares what search engine a stupid browser within a stupid OS will use for search? NOBODY uses Linux. Linux is retarded, slow, fiddly and insecure! 99.999998999% of people in this planet use WIndows 7!!!! W7 IS AWESOME!!!!!
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Who cares what search engine, a stupid copycat browser like FF within a stupid OS will use?NOBODY uses Linuxs.Linux is retarded, slow, fiddly and insecure!99.999998999% of people in this planet use WIndows 7!!!!W7 IS AWESOME!!!!!
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Who cares what search engine, a stupid copycat browser like FF within a stupid OS will use?NOBODY uses Linux.Linux is retarded, slow, fiddly and insecure!99.999998999% of people in this planet use WIndows 7!!!!W7 IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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im not even a linux user and im laughing at you
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I am with ubuntu ..whatever ubuntu does it would be fine .. but i cant understand why canonical did this
You seem insecure with your choice. Perhaps you have never tried using Linux?
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Ubuntu is the most used distro by far and this change will be be noticeable. Yahoo is working to increase their market share.
I think that you must care. Why else would you be posting here?
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Actually, if you maintain your /home folder between reinstallations odds are even that won’t be necesary…
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