"What will happen if Google cuts off Mozilla's revenue?!"
Google and Mozilla use these very cool legal devices called "contracts" so there's no "cutting off" of anything. The current contract covers the next three years.
"Where will Firefox get new users now that Chrome replaced Firefox in the Google Pack?!"
Firefox gets approximately 1.3 million downloads per day without Google's help. More than 95% of Firefox users found it via Mozilla's direct download.
Posted by: David G King | December 24, 2008 11:14 AM
Cuting off firefox would be really bad press. Besides, what google cares about is the money income from adds, no matter if it comes from firefox, or from an adsense user.
Posted by: kwanbis | December 24, 2008 2:12 PM
It doesn't matter how often you explain it, people will always try to find more in the Mozilla/Google relationship - simply because it is much more interesting then than the boring truth. The press will never stop speculating "what will happen if" and neither will the blogs.
Yes, I had to answer these questions as well, more than once. Oh, so Google stopped promoting Firefox? So what, did anything change?
Posted by: Wladimir Palant | December 24, 2008 3:32 PM
But why Google decided to develop their own browser (Chrome) instead of promoting the already existing Firefox? Or I could say why Firefox at the end failed to become Google's browser, despite all those attempts to include all those "web-applications-platform" features and dropping Thunderbird in favor of "web-mail-for-everybody"?
Posted by: LorenzoC | December 25, 2008 11:56 AM
LorenzoC:
Simple answer: because the developers and users of Firefox are comfortable where they are, and anyone who would use the "web-applications-platform" or web-mail are already using them or are using another browser which supports them(hence, Google creating Chrome). Chrome is simply another option for people; people who might otherwise be unhappy with Firefox or some other browser. A bonus (and possibly main attraction) for Google being advertising/usage of their browser and platform. ;)
For example, I like Google Mail, Google Search, and various other "web-apps" which are created by Google, however I cannot use Google's Chrome browser (natively, for now, because I'm on Linux), and I'm not sure I would like to use their browser, but it is a nice option if I find Firefox becomes undesirable. If all else fails, I can always use some other browser based on Webkit or Gecko (Arora and Epiphany are okay, but a bit buggy for now; and then there was Opera).
Posted by: Ben | January 11, 2009 8:44 AM
A contract seems to be becoming a rather unknown concept. Oh well, that is why we have lawyers...
What is Google Pack? I've never heard of that before.