Mozilla re-negotiates Google multi-million dollar sugar-daddy deal

Mozilla is negotiating its multi-million-dollar sugar-daddy finance deal with Google to keep operating. The Firefox browser-maker is in talks with Google to extend an agreement that has funnelled millions of Mountain View dollars into the not-for-profit web idealist shop, The Reg has learned. Google is the default search …

[Alan Denman]

What do the rest pay ?

Yes what about Yahoo!, Bing and DuckDuckGo, Amazon.com, eBay and Twitter.

Surely some of them pay at least a brass farthing ?

[JDX]

Re: What do the rest pay ?

Well they surely pay a similar level of royalties, but on a far smaller scale.

[ratfox]

Re: What do the rest pay ?

I suspect that the first place is worth gazillions more than all the rest put together… Certainly, there does not seem to be a lot of space between the total reported revenue of $311M for 2012 and the "almost $300M" claimed to be paid by Google.

[JDX]

I wonder if Google would consider dropping the Mozilla deal?

It might hurt them but if as suggested, Mozilla couldn't function without Google's cash, would Google like to kill FF? Or do they not care what browser people use as long as all browsers are fast and support stadnards well - i.e. do they care about browser share or only that people are doing everything online?

[phil dude]

Re: I wonder if Google would consider dropping the Mozilla deal?

It is strange but google actually has a vested interest in mozilla being nice and healthy and advancing the browser cause. Their business is getting people to browse, and so far they have been remarkably agnostic.

Let's hope Mozilla don't screw this up because of their dysfunction*...

P.

* All organizations have dysfunction, but no everyone cares...

[ratfox]

Re: I wonder if Google would consider dropping the Mozilla deal?

Mozilla would probably get almost as much money from Microsoft for Bing to be the default search engine; So Google would not be able to kill FF just by killing this deal. Also, I think Google cares a lot more about search engine market share than they care about browser market share.

Then again, the last time the deal was done, Chrome's market share was neck-and-neck with Firefox, and Internet Explorer was in front. Now Chrome has almost as much market share as the other two combined, so that might change things.

[sisk]

Re: I wonder if Google would consider dropping the Mozilla deal?

Mozilla would probably get almost as much money from Microsoft for Bing to be the default search engine

Not likely. Anyone savvy enough to not use their system's default browser (Firefox is the default on very few systems - almost all of them some flavor of Linux, so those users are savvy too) is savvy enough to switch the default search engine. Most such people, at least the ones I know, don't use Bing.

[JDX]

@sisk

I'm sure there is truth in what you say but I think you overstate things. Many people are savvy enough to install FireFox (or Chrome) but simply install it and consider it installed. The proportion who know how to set their preferred search engine is likely higher on FF/Chrome than IE but I'd suggest is definitely not more than 50%.

Still worth a chunk of cash to MS, definitely.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I wonder if Google would consider dropping the Mozilla deal?

I think certainly Bing would take Google's place, I'm not so sure their offer is anywhere near as high as Google's is. Microsoft aren't anywhere near as successfull at extracting money from search/ads

[Caspy7]

Re: I wonder if Google would consider dropping the Mozilla deal?

Microsoft has repeatedly demonstrated a tendency to throw gobs of cash for long periods at losing products until they succeed or have burned to a crisp.

I think MS would love the default search spot in Firefox - and possibly meet or beat Google's offering.

The last time this negotiation came around about a month beforehand Mozilla partnered with MS to release a version of Firefox "powered by Bing" (had its own website and everything). I don't think this was an accident, but a demonstration that they were willing to pull the trigger and use a different search engine.

[Caspy7]

"Mozilla re-negotiates Google multi-million dollar sugar-daddy deal"

Congrats. You got me to click on this story with the implication that there was a conclusion.

But you don't know anything about the outcome of this supposed "multi-million dollar sugar-daddy deal" which for all we know may not pan out.

I did come away with a healthy dose of negativity against Mozilla for being so audacious at (maybe) having the search deal.

You beat everyone to the punch at (possibly) reporting this story.

[Anonymous Coward]

Carry On, I say

As long as it's just defaulting the search engine to Google, then it's money for old rope. It takes only a few seconds to demote Google from the 'default' spot or even remove it completely if you wish.

I imagine anyone who has gone to the trouble of downloading Firefox would only keep the Google default if they actually wanted it.

[thomas k.]

... if they actually wanted it.

Or if they just didn't care. Or if they were too lazy to try and figure out how to change it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: ... if they actually wanted it.

I imagine anyone who knew how to download and install Firefox would find changing the search engine default a trivial exercise.

But maybe you're right, and people just don't care what search engine they use. In which case it's a win for Google.

For my part, dumping Google search is my first action after setting preferences on a new install.

[Elmer Phud]

Re: ... if they actually wanted it.

"anyone who knew how to download and install Firefox"

It's not exactly difficult is it?

But how many know about the Mycroft Project where they can pick up all sorts of things to bung in the list for the Search box?

[JDX]

Re: ... if they actually wanted it.

My mum can (just about) figure how to install FireFox or Chrome - she had it on her old PC which my late father set up and knew she wanted it on the new one. But anything past that she has no idea - the settings menu is intrinsically a scary place to most people remember. :)

[Nathan 6]

What happened to all those millions from firefox os?

I guess FfOS is DOA as far as revenues are concerned. Looks like that whole html5/javascript stack is just not as appealing for mobile development has some would like to believe.

[sisk]

Re: What happened to all those millions from firefox os?

Looks like that whole html5/javascript stack is just not as appealing for mobile development has some would like to believe.

I find it VERY appealing and use it all the time, but the problem with the HTML5/JavaScript stack as a base for a mobile OS is that if you do it right your app doesn't care what OS it's running on. Why would I, as a developer using that stack, do the extra work tie myself down to a particular OS when I could do less work and have my apps work on all platforms, mobile or otherwise? Sure having it show up as a native app is nice, but it's ludicrously easy to make a web app look native for iOS or Android and not much harder for Windows 8.

Simply put, from a developers perspective FirefoxOS adds nothing. From a typical users perspective the question is "What's FirefoxOS?"

[Colin Tree]

I though M$oft was fairly irrelevant in the modern internet world compared to 1 -2 decades ago, couldn't give a Bing.

I started with Netscape then Mozilla on Linux when Explorer ruled the net and broke web pages.

The competition with other web browsers levelled the playing field.

Thanks Google.

Keep the future support transparent to maintain our trust in Mozilla.

What is Firefox OS?

It's the thingy running my next phone so I can trust my phone the same as I trust my Mozilla browser!

[Turtle]

Not Very Closely At All.

"'This doesn’t couple us very closely to Google,' he said, 'and we don't need air to breathe or food to eat either. We are idealists and consequently above all that.'"

[T J]

And both of them stay crap

Regardless of their relationships, both their browsers continue to s*** me.

Chrome is so utterly bereft of features that it reminds me of Apple's garbage ("Let us think for you... even though we're hipster idiots.") But gee its flash bindings work nice!

And Firefox, with all its configurability and plugin ecology is a PIECE OF BLOATED PIGWARE that uses up nearly a gig of RAM when it's doing *nothing*. And its flash crashes if you breathe.

Would that the two clouds of nerds (or... herd of clowns?) could get together and produce the One True Browser, instead of urinating over their respective audiences.