3 ms·

The comments in the piece say Mozilla is screwed if Google is no longer allowed to pay for default search. Is that accurate?

2OEH8eoCRo0 3y ago
[flagged]
- influx 3y ago
  Can you expand a bit?
  - 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y ago
    Because anything can happen. There's no guarantee they're screwed or out of options. We also don't know what the penalty will be if Google loses.
stonemetal12 3y ago
A quick search suggests 86% of Mozilla's 2020 revenue came from their Google deal. I haven't heard of any major funding changes at Mozilla, so I would guess that is still the case. 80+% of their revenue up in smoke sounds pretty dire. They would certainly need to come up with something on the quick.
- metadat 3y ago
  Does Mozilla spend more than 14% of the annual budget on maintaining and improving Firefox? Based on the past few years of releases, I suspect not.. I wouldn't much mind or likely even notice if 98% of their other efforts halted (including political activities). Imagine a world where Mozilla shifted focus solely to creating a technically excellent web browser.
  - giancarlostoro 3y ago
    I've said it before. If Mozilla stopped with their nonsense and charged an optional $9 a month for a Developer build of Firefox (which ALREADY exists mind you) under the guarantee that all proceeds would go to funding Firefox, I would pay it every month. They're not even needing to build a new type of Firefox browser build, Developer edition already exists. If you tell your potential customer base that this would be the case, I'm sure plenty of devs would buy into it. Especially if they invest in dev tool enhancements. There's still so many random things I'm astounded that not even Chrome Dev Tools can capture, like if I'm debugging postMessage, why isn't there a tool to see what messages are going from what document to what host and so on. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/
- godshatter 3y ago
  Mozilla might go under, but at least the browser is still open source.
tantalor 3y ago
It's worse than that, nobody will be allowed to pay for default search.
- edgyquant 3y ago
  Imagine the horror. They might throw up a screen where you select your choice on first run.
  - shadowgovt 3y ago
    It's always been funny to me the hoops the EU had to force the browser vendors to jump through. "Pop up a selection screen." "Okay." "No, you're still listing your favorite partner as the first option. Randomize the options on every install." "Okay." I'm partially surprised the commission didn't complain about the choice of randomization algorithm. How much more signal do regulators need that users do. Not. Care?
zelon88 3y ago
Apple is a market leader in its industry and one of just two major mobile OS providers. Firefox is a web browser. One of dozens. And not even one of the biggest. They'll figure it out. They've been keeping that train moving since the Netscape days.
- forgotpwd16 3y ago
  >They've been keeping that train moving since the Netscape days. Worth noting though that the Google deal is going since Mozilla corp. was first established (nearly 20 years ago) and before, when was only the foundation, they're being funded by AOL. So since their early days they're relying on a massive donor.
  - cmrdporcupine 3y ago
    Thing is, Firefox itself (Phoenix) was a skunkworks project. It caught fire and did well for a time precisely outside of the bounds of Mozilla mgmt. So in a way it's more of an open question of what would happen to Firefox without Mozilla's patronage, or with reduced budget.

2OEH8eoCRo0 3y ago

[flagged]

influx 3y ago
Can you expand a bit?
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y ago
  Because anything can happen. There's no guarantee they're screwed or out of options. We also don't know what the penalty will be if Google loses.

stonemetal12 3y ago

A quick search suggests 86% of Mozilla's 2020 revenue came from their Google deal. I haven't heard of any major funding changes at Mozilla, so I would guess that is still the case. 80+% of their revenue up in smoke sounds pretty dire. They would certainly need to come up with something on the quick.

metadat 3y ago
Does Mozilla spend more than 14% of the annual budget on maintaining and improving Firefox? Based on the past few years of releases, I suspect not.. I wouldn't much mind or likely even notice if 98% of their other efforts halted (including political activities). Imagine a world where Mozilla shifted focus solely to creating a technically excellent web browser.
- giancarlostoro 3y ago
  I've said it before. If Mozilla stopped with their nonsense and charged an optional $9 a month for a Developer build of Firefox (which ALREADY exists mind you) under the guarantee that all proceeds would go to funding Firefox, I would pay it every month. They're not even needing to build a new type of Firefox browser build, Developer edition already exists. If you tell your potential customer base that this would be the case, I'm sure plenty of devs would buy into it. Especially if they invest in dev tool enhancements. There's still so many random things I'm astounded that not even Chrome Dev Tools can capture, like if I'm debugging postMessage, why isn't there a tool to see what messages are going from what document to what host and so on. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/
godshatter 3y ago
Mozilla might go under, but at least the browser is still open source.

tantalor 3y ago

It's worse than that, nobody will be allowed to pay for default search.

edgyquant 3y ago
Imagine the horror. They might throw up a screen where you select your choice on first run.
- shadowgovt 3y ago
  It's always been funny to me the hoops the EU had to force the browser vendors to jump through. "Pop up a selection screen." "Okay." "No, you're still listing your favorite partner as the first option. Randomize the options on every install." "Okay." I'm partially surprised the commission didn't complain about the choice of randomization algorithm. How much more signal do regulators need that users do. Not. Care?

zelon88 3y ago

Apple is a market leader in its industry and one of just two major mobile OS providers. Firefox is a web browser. One of dozens. And not even one of the biggest. They'll figure it out. They've been keeping that train moving since the Netscape days.

forgotpwd16 3y ago
>They've been keeping that train moving since the Netscape days. Worth noting though that the Google deal is going since Mozilla corp. was first established (nearly 20 years ago) and before, when was only the foundation, they're being funded by AOL. So since their early days they're relying on a massive donor.
- cmrdporcupine 3y ago
  Thing is, Firefox itself (Phoenix) was a skunkworks project. It caught fire and did well for a time precisely outside of the bounds of Mozilla mgmt. So in a way it's more of an open question of what would happen to Firefox without Mozilla's patronage, or with reduced budget.