how do I get rid of the Yahoo search engine?

Hi.

There is an option under Settings > Search where you can select one of the pre installed options, I use DuckDuckGo and you can delete those you do not want.

The option under Settings > Search.

The Yahoo search engine likely got added by an Extension install or update or by a external software. The desktop Firefox web browser has not come with a Yahoo search engine as one of the default options ever since the Firefox 57.0 to current Releases.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-or-remove-search-engine-firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-custom-search-engine-firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/change-your-default-search-settings-firefox

Thank you both for the input. I am familiar with the extensions and how to remove them but even after I remove all search engines that are Yahoo related from Firefox, any search i enter still gives me Yahoo results. reason enough not to make Firefox my default browser because Yahoo search is clearly search optimized to the hilt and does a lot of misdirecting. thanks again.

It doesn't have to be "Yahoo related" — it's oftentimes a rogue extension or malware that redirects searches to something they monetize via affiliate links and similar. So you need to either disable all addons and start enabling them one by one, or restart into Troubleshoot Mode to skip loading them all for a test. See support.mozilla.org/questions/1590908 for some links and context.