Category: Yahoo

Last month I wrote about the changing of the default search engine from Yahoo to Google in the latest Mozilla browser.  At the time, Yahoo had just been purchased by Verizon and had been assimilated into the new Oath business of the company.  The agreement between then Yahoo and Mozilla was for some $750 million but Mozilla, based on the purchase of Yahoo, felt they had a way out of the agreement and still get paid.

My quote at the time:  Right, so pay attention on this one because this is going to get interesting.

Well, it just got interesting.

Yahoo filed a lawsuit on December 1st claiming that Mozilla was in breach of contract for changing the default search engine.  Mozilla then counter sued on December 5th stating that Yahoo owed them the remainder of the contract fees and that they were within their contractural rights to cancel the agreement.

Right, so pay attention on this one because this is going to get interesting.

Firefox, the Internet browser from Mozilla, has a new branding and messaging.  The new name:  Firefox Quantum and the company reports that it is up to 30% faster than Google Chrome.  Great, competition is good and Firefox is a solid browser.

The interesting part is the default browser in this latest update.  It is now Google Search, not Yahoo has it has been since 2015.  That’s when Yahoo agreed to pay some $375 million to Mozilla to have Yahoo as the default search engine in Firefox.  The deal was reportedly through 2019.  Deals like this are not new.  But there appears to have been a kicker in the deal for Mozilla.

To be clear, we are talking about the default search engine here in the United States.  In other parts of the world, Google has been the default, not Yahoo.

It has come to light that a clause in the agreement that, if Yahoo were purchased, Mozilla could change the default search engine and still get the payments through 2019.  That means, assuming payments for 2017 were paid, Yahoo would still have to pay Mozilla some $750 million – and not be the default browser.

For those that don’t remember, Verizon purchased Yahoo earlier this year.  Anyone want to make bets at the number of Verizon lawyers looking this over?

Yahoo has rolled out an update to Flickr for Android that over all, isn’t that exciting.  It is mostly a bug fix release and a new notable feature of seeing photos from your groups within your feed on the home page.  The bigger news in this update however is there is no longer a requirement to sign up with a Yahoo account.

It goes without saying that Yahoo is an unholy mess.  The company, once one of the pillars of the online world, is a shadow of itself and Verizon looks to be picking the carcass for valuable bits.  If and when that happens, Yahoo will have a name change and will cease to exist.  But one that that will stick around it seems is Flickr.  The photo storage & sharing company was acquired by Yahoo back in 2005 and one of the early changes they made to the app was the requirement for a Yahoo account.  At the time, it angered a lot of pre-Yahoo users but 11 years later, the requirement has been abandoned.

Yesterday Yahoo announced that in late 2014, a security breach on their network resulted in some 500 million user accounts being compromised.  Yet the company just now reported it.  The hack, which the company believes was state sponsored, compromised accounts and user data including names, birthdays, email addresses, passwords, security questions, and telephone numbers but, thankfully, did not include payment or bank data.

Based on the ongoing investigation, Yahoo believes that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen and the investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo’s network. Yahoo is working closely with law enforcement on this matter.

Security breaches in companies happen and far to often than they should.  It is a constant cat-and-mouse game between companies and blackhats, especially those blackhats who are working for governments around the world.  My issues is that it took Yahoo two years to tell users and even then, it wasn’t in big bold letters. It was a frickin’ Tumblr post.  Really?