AfterDawn: Tech news

Google now paying $300 million to be default search engine in Firefox

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Dec 2011 1:07 User comments (6)

Google now paying $300 million to be default search engine in Firefox Earlier this week it was revealed that Google had paid again to be the default search engine in Firefox, the web browser which has about 25 percent of global market share.
Last year, Mozilla noted that Google practically kept the company in business in 2010, contributing 84 percent of their $123 million revenue.

The new deal, according to Kara Swisher, is apparently a lot more expensive for Google. If accurate, the deal now costs $300 million per year, for the next three years, meaning Mozilla will have made $1 billion revenue from Google, alone, for this year and the next three years.

It appears the payment was boosted so significantly because Microsoft and Yahoo were in the bidding, as well. Google was willing to pay up to block out the other companies, who are trying to take market share through a joint initiative and large marketing campaigns for Microsoft's Bing engine. Additionally, it has been speculated that Google is anticipating antitrust issues in the future, and is building a defense. For that to come true, however, Google's Chrome OS and Chrome browsers will need to get significantly more popular, to the point that they can be compared to Microsoft's Windows and Internet Explorer.



Regardless, Google is paying out $1 billion to a competitor who is losing market share quickly to its own Chrome browser so they must have something planned.

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6 user comments

125.12.2011 20:11

Smells like a buy-out to me. I hated Chrome when it came out and I was a Firefox purist for over 6 years, but now that Chrome has matured and is basically as compatible and expandable (or more) than Firefox, I'm sticking with Chrome, just like almost everyone else I know.

Mozilla has done some great work on Firefox over the years as well, but it seems to me like they're stuck in a rut. There haven't been any significant changes in Firefox in months...and their new "gestures" for Mac suck BIG TIME...

227.12.2011 13:55

Originally posted by DSWarrior:
Smells like a buy-out to me. I hated Chrome when it came out and I was a Firefox purist for over 6 years, but now that Chrome has matured and is basically as compatible and expandable (or more) than Firefox, I'm sticking with Chrome, just like almost everyone else I know.

Mozilla has done some great work on Firefox over the years as well, but it seems to me like they're stuck in a rut. There haven't been any significant changes in Firefox in months...and their new "gestures" for Mac suck BIG TIME...


Nonsense.......you're using Chrome at its simplest. Chrome is highly incompatible with numerous applications specific to corporate environments. It's incompatible with quite a bit out there and the lamest, most useless browser around. Firefox is DeFacto standard and IE makes for a viable backup for when jackass websites choose to write their code SPECIFICALLY for IE.

Phhooooey to Chrome crap. Chrome OS is just as bad. What a ghetto OS for lowlife bottom feeders whom can't afford anything else that's functional or practical.

I should remember though, you hinted you're a MAC user. Apple users are those that aren't proficient computer users looking for something that fixes itself and answers its own questions so I'm not surprised you're a Chrome user.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 Dec 2011 @ 1:58

329.12.2011 21:25

FireFox is a joke and I wouldn't pay $300M/yr just to have it as the default home site. Chrome maybe basic in features compared to FF but at least it can handle most sites, FF fails big time these days.

429.12.2011 23:17
Zoo_Look
Inactive

Something bothers me about this. Something I asked years ago in various other tech related forums and even news-groups.

Isn't a "default" search engine in some way akin to a "default" web browser? Surely Mozilla - free or not - are forcing users in its default install to use a product that they don't need... which is exactly what MS did way back when.

59.1.2012 00:39

Originally posted by Zoo_Look:
Isn't a "default" search engine in some way akin to a "default" web browser? Surely Mozilla - free or not - are forcing users in its default install to use a product that they don't need... which is exactly what MS did way back when.
Sure. But you also have to look at market share and monopoly status. The browser market is now anything but a monopoly. You've got three main contenders with vigorous competition. That's a lot different than Microsoft having 95% market share and telling everybody they must use IE.

In such a situation the Justice department and to a lesser extent the EU will probably let it pass.

69.1.2012 01:38
Zoo_Look
Inactive

You misunderstood. I was talking about Mozilla making Google the default search engine.

After a clean install, 100% of Firefox installations are using Google as their search engine. The user had to take further steps to configure their setup to use a different search. That's in every way a monopoly.

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