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Why Is Google Funding Its Own Competition In The Firefox OS?

6 points by sk2code 14y ago

diminoten 14y ago
Google is, at heart, an ad company. As far as I understand it (and I don't pay all that much attention to this kind of thing so feel free to correct me), everything Google does has to eventually, at some point, theoretically, go back to advertisement. What this means is that they don't give a (large) hoot if the eyeballs are looking through Firefox or Chrome (to elaborate a bit, I imagine Google would prefer if the eyeballs came through Chrome, but Firefox eyeballs still pay the rent). So from a purely business standpoint, I suspect the "loss" of promoting Firefox OS is less than the "loss" of not being Firefox's default search engine. Also, competition is, as far as I understand it, to Google, A Good Thing. There are probably lots of reasons for this, at least one of which likely has to do with how the Microsoft antitrust thing went down back in the 90s.
ozten 14y ago
This is a poorly conceptualized article. Mozilla makes money off Google. Google does not hold the purse strings and therefore cannot tell Mozilla what to build and what not to build. Of course a business deal could be made that restricted Mozilla's options, but I'm not aware of any such restriction and I don't think the non-profit organization would ever accept such an offer. There are other incorrect assumptions in the article, which are not backed up by fact or interview sources.
- suyash 14y ago
  Yeah the article is pretty bad. These days even Forbes is producing garbage content (just catchy headlines and no meat to it). You are correct, google pays Mozilla since they use Google Search in Firefox and they have no business otherwise in Mozilla's development. Also Firefox OS just launched and who know what it will become so I believe that maybe another reason for Google to not worry about it yet.
scottbartell 14y ago
That title is very misleading... Google is not funding Firefox OS. Google basically pays Firefox for traffic. Firefox is free to do whatever they want with their own money.

6 points by sk2code 14y ago

Google is, at heart, an ad company. As far as I understand it (and I don't pay all that much attention to this kind of thing so feel free to correct me), everything Google does has to eventually, at some point, theoretically, go back to advertisement. What this means is that they don't give a (large) hoot if the eyeballs are looking through Firefox or Chrome (to elaborate a bit, I imagine Google would prefer if the eyeballs came through Chrome, but Firefox eyeballs still pay the rent). So from a purely business standpoint, I suspect the "loss" of promoting Firefox OS is less than the "loss" of not being Firefox's default search engine. Also, competition is, as far as I understand it, to Google, A Good Thing. There are probably lots of reasons for this, at least one of which likely has to do with how the Microsoft antitrust thing went down back in the 90s.

ozten 14y ago

This is a poorly conceptualized article. Mozilla makes money off Google. Google does not hold the purse strings and therefore cannot tell Mozilla what to build and what not to build. Of course a business deal could be made that restricted Mozilla's options, but I'm not aware of any such restriction and I don't think the non-profit organization would ever accept such an offer. There are other incorrect assumptions in the article, which are not backed up by fact or interview sources.

suyash 14y ago
Yeah the article is pretty bad. These days even Forbes is producing garbage content (just catchy headlines and no meat to it). You are correct, google pays Mozilla since they use Google Search in Firefox and they have no business otherwise in Mozilla's development. Also Firefox OS just launched and who know what it will become so I believe that maybe another reason for Google to not worry about it yet.

scottbartell 14y ago

That title is very misleading... Google is not funding Firefox OS. Google basically pays Firefox for traffic. Firefox is free to do whatever they want with their own money.