“Yahoo! recommends upgrading to the NEW safer, faster Firefox 3 - Free”, reads a banner across the top of Yahoo.com, one of the biggest online portals. 

Whether this is just backbiting after the Microsoft deal gone sour, or Yahoo is really concerned about its users, it’s really nice to see someone as big as Yahoo openly promote the fox. What is not cool however, is that Safari, Opera, and Chrome users have also to see this message. Every browser has its issues, and Safari has been a relatively safe browser (Paypal’s accusations notwithstanding), not to mention it scores very high on the Acid3 test for standards compliance. I guess in this case Yahoo cannot show favouritism. Or is it, that this has nothing to do with Yahoo’s concern for the public’s browsing safety?

This sudden promotion comes across as a timely intervention against people checking out competitor Google’s newly released and much talked about Chrome browser. Besides that, Yahoo also rakes in plenty of green by promoting this free and open source browser. How is it possible to get money from a free product? The version of Firefox that is downloaded is a specially crafted “Yahoo Firefox”, with the Yahoo Searchbar included by default.

Whatever be the case, web developers around the globe will heave a sigh of relief for there will be less IE users to worry about. Safari users on the other hand know what they are doing, and will stick around. Won’t we?

[Via TechCrunch]