4 ms·

Mozilla is making millions on advertising from Firefox search and I think the same business model can be applied to Ubuntu. For example, by adding a search bar

by amix 18y ago

Mozilla is making millions on advertising from Firefox search and I think the same business model can be applied to Ubuntu. For example, by adding a search bar directly on the desktop.

nuclear_eclipse 18y ago
That's still not making any money on the free software itself or from the users; that's just another "added cost service", and the persons paying for it, instead of being the user, is the one wanting to advertise to the user. I could just as easily use any search provider in Firefox that I want (and I regularly use search plugins for Wikipedia, IMDB, Python/PHP references, Thottbot, etc) in place of Google, and then Mozilla no longer makes money from me. However, that's not to say that your idea isn't an excellent one. I'm just pointing out that even if that idea had been implemented, Mark is still right. ;)
mdasen 18y ago
Better yet, since they are free to make modifications to Firefox, they could always change the account to an Ubuntu one rather than leaving the Mozilla one in there for search. Wouldn't be so nice to Mozilla, but that is the nature of open-source. In fact, if you have a company with lots of employees who use Firefox, it might make sense for you to alter that. Of course, probably isn't worth the effort considering how little you'd make back.
- maw 18y ago
  They're not free to make that sort of modification to Firefox. Patches for Firefox (and a number of other Mozilla products) need to be vetted by MoCo, and I doubt they'd be approved. They are, of course, allowed to rebrand and then make all the modifications they wish. This was the impetus for the creation of Iceweasel.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
Zev 18y ago
Take Google away and how much money does Mozilla still make from the search bar?
- aston 18y ago
  Deep question: Take away Microsoft and how much money is Google willing to give Mozilla for the search bar?
  - mattmaroon 18y ago
    Take away Microsoft and Yahoo and the answer is $0.
  - netcan 18y ago
    Good question. But then, Google is about as dominant as we can expect anyone to be long term. For the foreseeable future search is worth a lot. So for the foreseeable future, helping search increase market share (even if it's only by 0.X%) is worth a good bit too. Actually, from a simplistic viewpoint, the ff search deal is worth more to MS then it is to Google. If FF didin't strike that deal, what engine would they put there? The cost of putting up MS/Yahoo in terms of user experience & pundit complaints would be something compared to Google. Also, Google would probably end up with a lot of that search traffic anyway. MS wouldn't have. Google is in a snese paying for traffic they may have gotten anyway. MS would be paying for nee traffic.

by amix 18y ago

Mozilla is making millions on advertising from Firefox search and I think the same business model can be applied to Ubuntu. For example, by adding a search bar directly on the desktop.

nuclear_eclipse 18y ago

That's still not making any money on the free software itself or from the users; that's just another "added cost service", and the persons paying for it, instead of being the user, is the one wanting to advertise to the user. I could just as easily use any search provider in Firefox that I want (and I regularly use search plugins for Wikipedia, IMDB, Python/PHP references, Thottbot, etc) in place of Google, and then Mozilla no longer makes money from me. However, that's not to say that your idea isn't an excellent one. I'm just pointing out that even if that idea had been implemented, Mark is still right. ;)

mdasen 18y ago

Better yet, since they are free to make modifications to Firefox, they could always change the account to an Ubuntu one rather than leaving the Mozilla one in there for search. Wouldn't be so nice to Mozilla, but that is the nature of open-source. In fact, if you have a company with lots of employees who use Firefox, it might make sense for you to alter that. Of course, probably isn't worth the effort considering how little you'd make back.

maw 18y ago
They're not free to make that sort of modification to Firefox. Patches for Firefox (and a number of other Mozilla products) need to be vetted by MoCo, and I doubt they'd be approved. They are, of course, allowed to rebrand and then make all the modifications they wish. This was the impetus for the creation of Iceweasel.

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

Zev 18y ago

Take Google away and how much money does Mozilla still make from the search bar?

aston 18y ago
Deep question: Take away Microsoft and how much money is Google willing to give Mozilla for the search bar?
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  Take away Microsoft and Yahoo and the answer is $0.
- netcan 18y ago
  Good question. But then, Google is about as dominant as we can expect anyone to be long term. For the foreseeable future search is worth a lot. So for the foreseeable future, helping search increase market share (even if it's only by 0.X%) is worth a good bit too. Actually, from a simplistic viewpoint, the ff search deal is worth more to MS then it is to Google. If FF didin't strike that deal, what engine would they put there? The cost of putting up MS/Yahoo in terms of user experience & pundit complaints would be something compared to Google. Also, Google would probably end up with a lot of that search traffic anyway. MS wouldn't have. Google is in a snese paying for traffic they may have gotten anyway. MS would be paying for nee traffic.