>Chrome isn't a business, so much as another way to search the web. But instead of automated crawlers it has people who will do the searching, do the crawling.

>Chrome isn't a business, so much as another way to search the web. But instead of automated crawlers it has people who will do the searching, do the crawling. Kind of ingenious if you think about it. Google will make more (indirect) money off the average chrome user than the average firefox user, simply because they get far more metrics, analytics and data from them to make a profile for advertising. Obviously, the average firefox user is likely to have higher technical skill so possibly go to some lengths to confound tracking attempts, but that is beside the point, especially since comparable privacy addons are generally available for chrome too, with the primary exception of NoScript. (Edit: NoScript itself for chrome may not exist, but there are still comparable addons). Back when google signed the Mozilla deal, they didn't have a browser, and the stream of data they get from directing firefox users' searches through google was and still is more profitable to them than letting mozilla pick another default and denying them that data.