Microsoft teams up with Mozilla to release Firefox with Bing

By Tom Warren, on 27th Oct 11 8:19 am with 14 Comments

Firefox with Bing

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it has teamed up with Mozilla to create a special Bing-powered version of Firefox.

The special version is available for Mac and Windows users and will allow Bing enthusiasts to use Firefox with Bing with default search settings for Bing. Microsoft originally worked with Mozilla last year to make Bing a search option in Firefox. The new version goes one step further by enabling the Bing functionality as the default search engine after install. Firefox with Bing offers the latest version of Firefox with Bing set as your home page and the default setting in the search box and AwesomeBar.

Microsoft worked with Mozilla after end user feedback. “You have told us to make it even easier to use Bing in Firefox,” said Microsoft’s Tor Steiner in a blog post on Wednesday. “We are excited to make it even easier for members of the Mozilla Firefox community to use Bing.”

We’ll let you know if Microsoft sends Mozilla a cupcake for shipping Firefox with Bing. In the meantime you can download the Firefox with Bing version at firefoxwithbing.com.

  • http://twitter.com/Salem309 Ahmed Salem

    “to create a special Bing-powered version of Firefox”
    I could not get this part!!

  • Anonymous

    WTF. I mean great.
    bing will grow faster.

  • Grannyville7989

    It’s like giving someone a glass of ice water in Hell.

  • http://www.timacheson.com/ Tim Acheson

    It’s time for Mozilla/Firefox to wake up. Google is the enemy. For years, Mozilla has been using their greatest asset to promote their greatest rival. Mozilla promoting Google was naive before the launch of Chrome, but now it’s suicidally foolish.

    • Anonymous

      I think so, but I don’t think they want to promote IE either. I think mozilla should get out of these entanglements with google and msft altogether. Like many of the old school anti-MS zealots, the mozilla guys are finally waking up to the fact that google isn’t any better than their long feared enemy and that trying to kill a monopoly by replacing it with yet another monopoly and another billionare company is just plain dumb. Firefox’s marketshare plateau and chrome’s rise is in part thanks to FF’s pro-google movements over the years and it is a lesson they needed to learn. Hopefuly this is the last alliance we see mozilla make. But the sooner they ditch all aspects of their google propaganda the better they will be.

    • http://www.timacheson.com/ Tim Acheson

      Good points.

      But FF isn’t competing with IE anymore. IE isn’t chasing usage stats. From IE9, it only works on Windows, and even then only Win7+.

    • Anonymous

      Just ask PayPal, another recent example.

  • http://www.timacheson.com/ Tim Acheson

    Blogged by Mozilla: http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2011/10/26/offering-a-customized-firefox-experience-for-bing-users/

  • Anonymous

    I wouldn’t read too much into this. It just means Mozilla is willing to pimp itself out for cash.
    Per their blog:
    “There are nearly 20 customized versions of Firefox distributed globally by partners…”

  • GP007

    Just wait for the Bing as default search on iDevices in a bit, I have a strong feeling it’ll happen after this did.

    Besides, its a fact that Google gets lots of hits because its the default on the majority of browsers.

    • Anonymous

      I’m not too sure about that, bing is the default in IE7, 8 and 9 and yet it doesnt have 45% market share

  • Anonymous

    about time. having all the googlopoly stuff in FF is annoying and having to get rid of it to get bing to work is like trying to remove all the junkware from an OEM pc. I’m so glad mozilla is finally waking up to the fact each time they send somebody deeper into the tentacles of the googlopoly they are pushing them into the arms of chrome.

  • Anonymous

    WOW Microsoft is on the move….. now Google is crying saying ” why do you hate Google Search , why do u hate Android, why do you all hate me :( “

  • Dude

    Now, if Microsoft can just team up with Google to make Bing the home page and default engine for Chrome…