Mozilla + Yahoo!
Ars Technica tell us Firefox lost users during “failed” Yahoo search deal, says Mozilla CEO:
[Mitchell] Baker [Mozilla CEO] testified that Mozilla’s popular browser Firefox tried to switch from using Google as a default search engine but reverted back after a “failed” bet on Yahoo made it clear that Google was Firefox users’ preferred search engine.
If there is a great thing about these lawsuits, like DOJ vs Google, is that everything entered into evidence becomes no longer kept secrets.
Now, there is a lot to unpack in the article but the gist of it is that when Mozilla started to get away from the Google search deal and they switched to a competitor, while financially good, it didn’t work out. So much that when Verizon bought Yahoo!, Mozilla escaped, and Google was eager to get them back.
A key element in Mozilla survival is to grow the marketshare to stay relevant. Otherwise, and we see the effect right now, it’s the mono culture. It happened with Microsoft Internet Explorer 20 years ago, it’s happening now with Google Chrome.1
But Mozilla currently need that sweet Google money.2
Disclaimer: I worked at Mozilla when the Yahoo! deal was made. But my work had nothing to do with it, I was a software engineer on Firefox OS.
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Chrome is the new Internet Explorer, Google the new Microsoft and Microsoft is the new IBM. ↩︎
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Today the cost of developing a web browser is high. Very high, and it’s not a one time job. That’s why Mozilla needs the money. That’s why both Opera and Microsoft abandonned the development of theirs, to give the market to Google. ↩︎