In addition to improving performance, adding advanced graphics capabilities, and new tabs, Mozilla's upcoming Firefox 4 browser will offer many search options in its search box, which appears to the right of the URL bar.

The current search options fall into three categories: general search, shopping, and reference.

Google remains the most popular general search and it will remain as the default search option, unless you change it, Mozilla said. The company will also continue to include Yahoo! as the second option for general search, which integrates the Bing engine for its algorithmic search results.

"Bing itself offers a user experience that we think users will find valuable, and with its significant rise in popularity over the last year, we will also be including Bing as a general search option for English language users," Mozilla said.



Amazon.com and eBay will continue to be included by default as popular choices for shopping search engines, Mozilla added.

Wikipedia will also continue to be included by default as a popular reference search engine. Mozilla will be removing Answers.com and Creative Commons.

"Answers.com is a good service but Wikipedia is more useful as an included reference search engine. The Creative Commons search engine has changed over the years from one focused on locating CC licensed materials to one focused on providing a general search from Google, Yahoo and others. We are huge fans of Creative Commons and will continue to actively support their organization and mission through grants and joint programs, "Mozilla's team explained.

Overall these changes will mean that English-language versions of Firefox 4 will display the following search services, in this order: Google (default), Yahoo, Bing, Amazon, eBay and Wikipedia.

Of course, Firefox will continue to provide users with complete control over their list of search engines, with access to a large gallery of search plug-ins and the ability to change the default search engine at any time.