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The hardest thing to see here is that we don't have a solution. Firefox makes money by setting google as the default search. Google is its biggest competitor. T

The hardest thing to see here is that we don't have a solution. Firefox makes money by setting google as the default search. Google is its biggest competitor. There are no obvious other revenue stream. Also, let's not pretend chrome sucks. Chrome is on top because it is an amazing browser (and you are googling stuff anyway). Firefox needs to change it's strategy, it needs to pull an Amazon. Amazon is the type of business that cannot be built. It costs too much, it was not profitable, but it was a stepping stone. Amazon sold books to get people in, built AWS (a separate business) to fund the business, created a fast delivery network (also funded by AWS), and then became profitable. Firefox needs to find it's AWS if it wants to survive.

avodonosov 6y ago
I have switched from chrome to firefox on desktop just recently, because chrome accumulated so many usability problems that i can not stand it anymore.
zbuf 6y ago
Is the Google funding enough to maintain the browser development (and participation in web standards) of Mozilla? It has always seemed like it should be. That focus could be a welcome simplicity to this. Long term you don't want a single donor, but this very simple mission then makes it easier to broaden that base of donations.
- lumberingjack 6y ago
  It would be plenty of money to do what they need to do if they weren't hiring people they didn't need simply to virtual signal somehow thinking that it will bring more users and just generally spending money where they don't need to. Just take a look at some of their employees Twitter's ridiculous office parties ridiculous retreat party culture.
toyg 6y ago
Bezos didn’t set out to build AWS, nor did he build AWS “to fund the business”. It was a somewhat-lucky turn of events. Amazon is fundamentally a distribution company that noticed some of their internal services could be sold to others, and it turned out that the market for that was bigger than expected. I agree that Mozilla needs to get a similar lucky break somehow, but it’s not easy to get lucky on that scale.

avodonosov 6y ago

I have switched from chrome to firefox on desktop just recently, because chrome accumulated so many usability problems that i can not stand it anymore.

zbuf 6y ago

Is the Google funding enough to maintain the browser development (and participation in web standards) of Mozilla? It has always seemed like it should be. That focus could be a welcome simplicity to this. Long term you don't want a single donor, but this very simple mission then makes it easier to broaden that base of donations.

lumberingjack 6y ago
It would be plenty of money to do what they need to do if they weren't hiring people they didn't need simply to virtual signal somehow thinking that it will bring more users and just generally spending money where they don't need to. Just take a look at some of their employees Twitter's ridiculous office parties ridiculous retreat party culture.

toyg 6y ago

Bezos didn’t set out to build AWS, nor did he build AWS “to fund the business”. It was a somewhat-lucky turn of events. Amazon is fundamentally a distribution company that noticed some of their internal services could be sold to others, and it turned out that the market for that was bigger than expected. I agree that Mozilla needs to get a similar lucky break somehow, but it’s not easy to get lucky on that scale.