4 ms·

Is it common for distros to have deals with search providers in exchange for keeping them as the default in their browsers ?

by xuhu 4y ago

BeefWellington 4y ago
Common? Probably not. It's not unheard of though. See: Ubuntu.
- oblak 4y ago
  It was so cool to have amazon snoop on your presumably local searches...
  - groovybits 4y ago
    Citation? Lots of folks misremember how the Unity Home Lens feature actually worked, and that the Ubuntu installer explicitly asked you whether you wanted it enabled. If enabled, there was no presumption of local-only search. It was front and center in your search results, and the affiliate revenue was only collected when you clicked on that Amazon result. Canonical claimed that the search was forwarded to them, and then anonymized to Amazon. That's more than what Microsoft seems to do with Bing results in Windows search, which you can't seem to disable without installing third-party scripts. Was it a perfect solution? No - But it was a way to make revenue in an otherwise open-source project and free of cost. Its interesting how on some days, people argue for more money towards FOSS devs, and then others argue that revenue-building systems shouldn't be implemented. Yeah, Canonical makes enterprise investments, but they're obviously weren't in the realm of Red Hat in terms of enterprise support.
    - silisili 4y ago
      I agree that some talk at the time was overblown, most of it even. That said, it was a braindead idea to begin with. Not one person in existence wants or expects shopping links when searching their computer via a dock like interface. This is meant for applications or files. When shopping, most are going to research on Google...or perhaps search a category on Amazon itself before choosing a product. I'd be curious it Ubuntu even made a single sale from that venture.
      - groovybits 4y ago
        Agree that is was not a great idea, or one that anyone asked for. I saw it as a way for Canonical to start bringing end-user-oriented features to the Linux desktop, something that Linux sorely needed circa 00s and early 10s. They also had the forethought to bring web apps to the desktop before most major players did. It was all part of their 'continutity' push at the time: desktop and phone in one cohesive interface. Too early for its time, but its clearly working for Apple.
  - rvnx 4y ago
    It's hosted by Microsoft now, not Amazon anymore
bityard 4y ago
Do you believe Debian has made a deal with a search provider?
kornhole 4y ago
I don't know, but that seems like a reasonable funding solution given that Google is expected to pay Apple ~$20B this year: https://dazeinfo.com/2022/01/05/google-pays-apple-for-not-launching-its-own-search-engine/ https://dazeinfo.com/2022/01/05/google-pays-apple-for-not-la...
- pb7 4y ago
  Apple has hundreds of millions of wealthy customers. Debian does not.
  - kornhole 4y ago
    They have a few though. Certainly they don't have captive users who only install what they are allowed to and use the default settings. Linux users are probably the worst target market for advertisers.
    - pb7 4y ago
      >Linux users are probably the worst target market for advertisers. Yes but not for the reason you are imagining. I can think of a few things in common between everyone I've ever known to use Linux for personal use and general consumerism to improve quality of life is not one of them.
      - kornhole 4y ago
        That is exactly what I was thinking. I suspect the algorithms in the real time bidding engines put anybody with Linux in their browser signature in a very cheap ad category. The market researches probably concluded that these people continue using $200 computers for years and try to repair things instead of buying new wherever possible.
        fomine3 4y ago
        I'm confident that debian users are tend to be a programmer compared to average PC user. Programmers are richer compared to average so won't they buy things more? (though ads are a bit less effective for programmers)
aasasd 4y ago
Pretty sure the negotiations would go approximately like: “Best I can do is fifty bucks.”
tristan957 4y ago
As reported in an earlier comment, DDG did not make a deal with Debian for this. Prior art is that Linux Mint at one point had Yahoo as the default search engine in their Firefox builds. I am not sure whether that is currently the case.

Is it common for distros to have deals with search providers in exchange for keeping them as the default in their browsers ?

by xuhu 4y ago

Is it common for distros to have deals with search providers in exchange for keeping them as the default in their browsers ?

BeefWellington 4y ago

Common? Probably not. It's not unheard of though. See: Ubuntu.

oblak 4y ago
It was so cool to have amazon snoop on your presumably local searches...
- groovybits 4y ago
  Citation? Lots of folks misremember how the Unity Home Lens feature actually worked, and that the Ubuntu installer explicitly asked you whether you wanted it enabled. If enabled, there was no presumption of local-only search. It was front and center in your search results, and the affiliate revenue was only collected when you clicked on that Amazon result. Canonical claimed that the search was forwarded to them, and then anonymized to Amazon. That's more than what Microsoft seems to do with Bing results in Windows search, which you can't seem to disable without installing third-party scripts. Was it a perfect solution? No - But it was a way to make revenue in an otherwise open-source project and free of cost. Its interesting how on some days, people argue for more money towards FOSS devs, and then others argue that revenue-building systems shouldn't be implemented. Yeah, Canonical makes enterprise investments, but they're obviously weren't in the realm of Red Hat in terms of enterprise support.
  - silisili 4y ago
    I agree that some talk at the time was overblown, most of it even. That said, it was a braindead idea to begin with. Not one person in existence wants or expects shopping links when searching their computer via a dock like interface. This is meant for applications or files. When shopping, most are going to research on Google...or perhaps search a category on Amazon itself before choosing a product. I'd be curious it Ubuntu even made a single sale from that venture.
    - groovybits 4y ago
      Agree that is was not a great idea, or one that anyone asked for. I saw it as a way for Canonical to start bringing end-user-oriented features to the Linux desktop, something that Linux sorely needed circa 00s and early 10s. They also had the forethought to bring web apps to the desktop before most major players did. It was all part of their 'continutity' push at the time: desktop and phone in one cohesive interface. Too early for its time, but its clearly working for Apple.
- rvnx 4y ago
  It's hosted by Microsoft now, not Amazon anymore

bityard 4y ago

Do you believe Debian has made a deal with a search provider?

kornhole 4y ago

I don't know, but that seems like a reasonable funding solution given that Google is expected to pay Apple ~$20B this year: https://dazeinfo.com/2022/01/05/google-pays-apple-for-not-launching-its-own-search-engine/ https://dazeinfo.com/2022/01/05/google-pays-apple-for-not-la...

pb7 4y ago
Apple has hundreds of millions of wealthy customers. Debian does not.
- kornhole 4y ago
  They have a few though. Certainly they don't have captive users who only install what they are allowed to and use the default settings. Linux users are probably the worst target market for advertisers.
  - pb7 4y ago
    >Linux users are probably the worst target market for advertisers. Yes but not for the reason you are imagining. I can think of a few things in common between everyone I've ever known to use Linux for personal use and general consumerism to improve quality of life is not one of them.
    - kornhole 4y ago
      That is exactly what I was thinking. I suspect the algorithms in the real time bidding engines put anybody with Linux in their browser signature in a very cheap ad category. The market researches probably concluded that these people continue using $200 computers for years and try to repair things instead of buying new wherever possible.
      - fomine3 4y ago
        I'm confident that debian users are tend to be a programmer compared to average PC user. Programmers are richer compared to average so won't they buy things more? (though ads are a bit less effective for programmers)

aasasd 4y ago

Pretty sure the negotiations would go approximately like: “Best I can do is fifty bucks.”

tristan957 4y ago

As reported in an earlier comment, DDG did not make a deal with Debian for this. Prior art is that Linux Mint at one point had Yahoo as the default search engine in their Firefox builds. I am not sure whether that is currently the case.