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Mozilla, Google extend 'sweethearts' browser deal for 3 years

A marriage made in search heaven

Mozilla has extended its revenue deal with Google for another three years, following some will-they-won't-they speculation about the future of that "sweethearts" partnership.

Interestingly, the contract renewal comes just weeks after Google's Chrome browser gently brushed past Mozilla's Firefox to become the world's second-favourite surfing tool behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

The relationship between Mozilla and Google had supposedly chilled in recent months. But that hasn't stopped the two outfits sticking by each other for another three years.

That's despite the fact that Mozilla does have other search agreements in place with - among others - Bing, Yahoo!, Yandex, Amazon and eBay.

The fact remains that Mozilla derives most of its cash from Google's search, making the partnership a vital one for the open-source outfit. At the same time, traffic the Chocolate Factory gets from Firefox remains important.

However, it's arguably not as juicy a deal for Google as it once was – given that Chrome now holds a 25 per cent share of the browser market, according to the latest StatCounter global figures.

But then, financial details of the revenue renewal contract were kept secret.

Here's what Mozilla's CEO Gary Kovacs said about the deal in a blog post yesterday:

We’re pleased to announce that we have negotiated a significant and mutually beneficial revenue agreement with Google.

This new agreement extends our long term search relationship with Google for at least three additional years.

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.

Google senior search veep Alan Eustace also commented on the company's browser sweetheart.

"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,” he said. ®

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