11 ms·

Mozilla get a lot of funding directly from Google for making Google the default search site [0]. Seems to me that this may be a problem going forward if Mozilla

• HenryBemis 3y ago
  The curse of the default tells us that this will never be a problem. Do you honestly believe that 99% of the Android Firefox users spend time to change the settings on the browser? (change to DDG, block all 3rd party cookies, etc.) I did a quick search on DDG but no meaningful results came up with search engine for firefox on android. Gut feeling tells me 'minimal'. People do like their google remembering stuff. Convenience is the enemy of security (privacy in this case).
  • jraph 3y ago
    To be an Android Firefox user, you already went to the trouble of installing an alternative browser on Android. The motivations to switch browsers might as well be the same as those which will push you to switch search engines. I would totally expect a reasonable number of Android Firefox users, of all apps, to change at least the search engine. (I'm with you on the general case)
    • zo1 3y ago
      Chrome is embedded in Android way more than people realize. It's at a level of what IE was with windows, probably way worse too depending on how you look at it.
  • MrStonedOne 3y ago
    I think you might be missing their concern. The concern is that google basically funds firefox, and can choose to revoke that funding at the most inconvenient time for mozilla, risking bankruptcy. Companies ebb and flow on cash flow, and a unexpected drop at the exact wrong moment can cripple even the most well funded ones. Or just threaten to do so to exert pressure.
  • soco 3y ago
    DDG search (same setup, in Android Firefox) is quite slower for me than Google search, it needs a few good seconds to bring the search results. No idea why this might be.
• izacus 3y ago
  Yes, attacking the source of revenue that sustains a project is always a sensitive prospect. But then again, what's the alternative for Mozilla? In case of YouTube Premium we've clearly seen that even HN software engineers, demanding six figure pay, will refuse to pay other software companies a few bucks for their engineering work. Where does Mozilla find funding to sustain itself elsewhere?
  • luc4 3y ago
    What? We're not refusing to "pay other software companies a few bucks for their engineering work", we refuse to give in to the extortion attempts of a greedy multi-billion dollar company. I have and will keep financially supporting software I find useful. However, I do agree that it's questionable whether you can easily replace Google as a source of funding.
    • jamespo 3y ago
      It's hardly extortion, watching Youtube isn't a human right
      • 93po 3y ago
        Google has massively anti-competitive practices, and especially with Youtube. They have made an explicit effort to kill competition in the online video space and have been very successful at it. We are now left, as a result of Google's malicious actions, with a single realistic option of platforms for video content creators. To have Google take these actions, then force us with the decision of "let us shove ads and tracking down your throat" or "miss a massive part of important media available, including for professional and educational reasons", feels pretty bad to me. Maybe extortion isn't the best word, but it's super shitty.
    • Xenoamorphous 3y ago
      > I have and will keep financially supporting software I find useful If you watch YouTube you presumably find it useful too? Also, what about content creators? They get paid off the money Google gets from YouTube.
• dna_polymerase 3y ago
  Firefox is essentially a dead fish in the sea. Depending on source, Firefox sits at 3-8 % market share. They are much more likely to lose funding because of irrelevancy than some users using AdBlock.
  • lopis 3y ago
    3-8% of the Internet users is 400 million users. I wouldn't call that "dead in the sea". Even 1% of the Internet users is a very significant amount of users. Why obsess with market share? At some point all browsers raised from 0% market share. Choose whatever fits your needs.
    • beej71 3y ago
      Market share is important because if it gets too low, no one tests on or supports your browser. And then coders start only supporting specific features of the monopoly browser and voila, IE6 redux.
    • idonotknowwhy 3y ago
      I wonder how many of us get counted as chrome users. Eg. I have to fake the chrome user agent to set the full Google finance on Firefox mobile
• x0x0 3y ago
  Mozilla's rev stream from google is also antitrust mitigation.
  • recursivecaveat 3y ago
    Exactly. If there was only 1 Firefox user, it would be a Google staffer being paid to keep that number above 0.
• contrarian1234 3y ago
  It's already a problem. You can see that they're already scared to piss off their sugar daddy You have an official "Facebook Container", but of course no official "Google Container" ... even though Google is the one that does actual tracking across the whole internet and has JS/fonts/etc. on nearly ever webpage
  • wkat4242 3y ago
    There are official "anything" containers so that's really not a problem. The facebook container was just a way of introducing people to the container concept, and they can move to the generic Multi-Account Containers so they can really separate everything including Google. They're also really nifty to log in to multiple microsoft tenants which are really a pain in the ** to deal with otherwise.
• conradfr 3y ago
  Firefox blocks adsense by default (tracking protection enabled) even without any adblocker.
• johnchristopher 3y ago
  It's been like that for 20 years.