Comments on: Mozilla’s Relationship with Google “Complicated”

By: 46Bit

46Bit — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:40:45 +0000

The main reason I dislike FF is because they were silly enough to make the default Vista skin look even worse than IE7! I mean – dull blue and a white stripe! Bearing in mind the old one was pretty nice (not as nice as the custom ones, but bearable easily), it’s mad.

By: MauiMan2

MauiMan2 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:29:56 +0000

Searching from the address bar came from FF first.

It actually started with Netscape several years before Firefox came along.

By: James Harmison

James Harmison — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:22:19 +0000

I think selling web applications is one of the businesses that Google is actively pursuing.Google is a good search engine of other.
http://www.relationshipsaver.org/

By: vincpa

vincpa — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:31:19 +0000

I don’t see what the big deal is with Chrome. I understand a lot of people use it because using Google makes them the cool kids on the block, but look at it in terms of innovation.

Opera invented tabbed browsing and mouse gestures for browsing as well as speed dial which Google ripped off. Searching from the address bar came from FF first.

Theres also that other cool feature people rave about with Chrome is each tab has its own OS process even though IE8beta came out with that months because Chrome was released.

People who rave about Chrome don’t know much about software, they are just average users who are into the latest craze, period!

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:40:26 +0000

Google = search = advertising

Google is an advertising company and will always be an advertising company despite any efforts to monetize other products or services (yes, including green tech initiatives).

All web app / tool development is to enable further distribution / consumption of their ad products.

By: Josh Catone

Josh Catone — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:18:27 +0000

@Jim: Selling web applications is one of the businesses that Google is actively pursuing. You’re right to point out that it is far from their largest or most profitable business. It is a business they are in, however, and clearly one they are serious about pursuing aggressively.

By: Jim Guardian

Jim Guardian — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:02:46 +0000

“who is in the business of selling web applications”

that’s a good one, I thought all along they were in the Advertising business, they pretty much own every piece of ad out there, including Ask.com’s, Yahoo’s and every other website out there.

By: MauiMan2

MauiMan2 — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:27:10 +0000

All I can say is that I just sit back and watch as Google becomes too big for its britches and the general public allows it to happen. Then they complain about Google getting too big but don’t do anything about it.

By: angusgrant

angusgrant — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:28:29 +0000

Hi well I still will use FF until Chrome et al… sorts out there security flaws.

By: honeymonster

honeymonster — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:35:24 +0000

Being almost entirely dependent on a deal with a single partner is not good for any business, profit or non-profit.

When that deal centers around a single constellation – default search in a single product – it is even worse.

When the “partner” launches a product which is a direct competitor to your flagship product – the uptake of which is at the center of the deal – it is indeed a precarious situation.

Mozilla needs to move quickly to ensure other sources of revenue. While Google renewed the deal for 3 years, more than a half of a year has already passed. If Chrome establishes itself as a credible alternative and we get to within 1 year of the end of that deal without Mozilla having secured alternative funding, the uncertainty about FFs future alone will cause some customers to look at the obvious alternative. Also, if they do not succeed in securing funding they have to make arrangements to lay off employees. Presumably several of them have contractual claims on severances which means that they cannot simply let the 3 years run out before taking action.

So even though 3 years seemed like a long time, Mozilla has much less time than that before the effect of lack of funding will set in. If Google decides to pull the funding.