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Google Paying for Firefox Installs
slashkitty writes "Google updated their AdSense service to pay publishers for referrals. What's interesting is that now they pay publishers $1 US for each FireFox download with the Google Toolbar installed. Is this the bump that Firefox needs to boost downloads? Will Google be able to pay the millions for all the downloads?"
He truly taught me how to love a woman, from across the street, through a telescope.
all the Firefox installs at the lab here. I'll even download them a few times each for every system, to make sure it downloads properly.
Meh.
I just heard some screaming from the Redmond boys and it sounded something like this: "I am going to fuckig kill them, both Google and firefox, I have done it before I will do it again! Just you wait Google and firefox, your going to be dead!"
Does this mean MSN is going to offer $10 per each download of IE?!?
I strongly doubt it. Yessir, I do.
Sounds evil to me.
Google has, what, three billion dollars in cash?
Will Google be able to pay the millions for all the downloads?
Don't you think it's a bit too optimistic to expect "millions of downloads"?
Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
What a stupid question.
Easily. If Google can pay the $100, the $1 (1%) will be no probelm especially since there's a disclaimer - the depending on the user's location part.
Evil people don't think they're evil. - George Lucas, Making of Ep III
*vamping* Microsoft goin' down! Down, down, down! Microsoft goin' down! Down, down, down!
I'm sure Google is completely innocent of spyware, but I'm resisting installing the Google toolbar in Firefox, or IE. There's already a Google search bar in Firefox, and I've been anti-addon-toolbar for years now, since every unstable system I've worked on had at least one of them. When the great Google Toolbar Trap is sprung, I'll be on the outside of the box, thank you very much.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Google REALLY wants to fscking kill Microsoft! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!
This is much better than a fight between gladiators. Popcorn, anyone? B-)
Will Google be able to pay all those million? Get a grip! They've been paying millions for all those open-source programmers that are working on Open Office and other programs.
They want to hurt Micro$oft, and paying a couple of hundred million to make Firefox hit critical mass is just small change to a company with a few billion to spread around.
When Firefox DOES hit critical mass, which means that web developers HAVE to create web apps that render/function correctly in Firefox, people will have less reason to stick with IE, adding more impetous to the Firefox migration, and weakening the MS lock-in on the web.
HexaByte - he's a square and a half!
This is pretty good move from google. They know it is not possible to bundle with IE. The next best is to push with other alternative that is firefox. The advantage for google is to tap potential customers(?) who use Mac OS or Linux or Windows.
It seems to me that when posting a story like this, at least one of the links should lead to something that actually discusses the subject of the article.
p y?answer=27406&ctx=en:search&query=firefox&topic=0 &type=f
Here is a link to the actual section of the Google AdSense FAQ that mentions the dollar per Firefox install:
http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.
Also, Google currently has over 7.5 billion dollars in the bank, so yeah, they could pay one dollar for EVERY PERSON ON EARTH to install Firefox and not go broke.
The suggestion that Google might not be able to "pay for all those downloads" is absolutely rediculous. If there are 10 million Firefox downloads, and Google is paying $1 each, that's basically little more than a rounding error in Google's financial statements. You can check them out at the SEC if you don't believe me. Those numbers are in thousands. As in, Google has cash or marketable securities in the area of 2.1 billion dollars. 10 million is practically rounding error. Google's balance sheet is here: at the SEC
Statistically speaking, there's a 99.998% chance that my IQ is higher than yours. Get over it.
Put one buck in and get two back from all those people clicking on the topical paid links from google searches.
Great business decision. I just wish I could have gotten in with the IPO stock.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I still use internet explorer (yea yea..) mostly because I don't want to install anything more than I have to. Windows is bloated enough as-is, and I don't need or want extra luggage attatched to my everyday computing. I've actually found that IE is fairly non-obtrusive if you turn all the extra crap off. I guess I've just found that I don't often use Firefox's extra features. I generally browse one page at a time, and I don't use my web browser for anything much more than reading the news (/.) or checking my email.
"Will Google be able to pay": that's a phrase we haven't heard in a while!
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
What's interesting is that Google are now using scumbag spyware maker tactics. How long before they start including CoolWebSearch or VX2? So much for the "don't be evil" screed I guess.
Now, I agree with those people who think Google is basically a good company. However I also think one of the major reasons they are doing this is because Google want to make sure that Firefox's taking over from IE continues, as based on past experience, if Microsoft can keep IE in a monopoly position, it's only a matter of time until various bits of Google start getting "accidentially broken" during IE service packs. Also spreading firefox stops an increase in IE-only websites.
:)
So in conclusion, Firefox gets some more installs, Google gets some more google toolbar installs, lots of websites gain "install firefox" links, IE loses a bit more market share and Google loses a bit of spare change. Everyone wins, except those people we don't like
Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
Ok, so I lied -- I found the Fiscal Year 2004 balance sheets, instead of Google's most recent quarterly report. which you can find here. Google does have 7.1 billion in cash and marketable securities. 10 or 20 or even 30 million is rounding Error. Unless every man, woman, and child on the planet decides to download Firefox, Google is fine here.
Statistically speaking, there's a 99.998% chance that my IQ is higher than yours. Get over it.
Goolge is burning money like crazy Idiots buying stocks are jacking up the price of a company with only search as a "Product" and rest all vaporware or thinware. Maybe additional revenue from their new music player sales will help.
1$ is a small price to pay to spread their wings like this. Google has the branding for their website, of which google has become a household term in the American language. They support IE for its massive install base, but I think its pretty clear Google wants its own software, and who can blame them!
/. talk about how Linux is "oh so close", and has been for years. In that time, I've been a linux supporter, I have a linux machine -- but now all my machines look more like Google machines than Linux or Windows. See the comparison here too with iPod/iTunes? Apple made a player that you would actually want, and sold music in a format you would actually want.
Google makes stuff good enough you actually want it. Are you listening, Linux on the Desktop Zealots? Half of all articles on
~Rebecca
"Will Google be able to pay the millions for all the downloads?"
Checks NYSE.... Do you suppose? Since we're talking about a lot less than "millions", more like a million or so on a good year here on out. That's for all installs, not the fraction of installs with google toolbar.
Since the data/referals they'll get will grow/improve significantly. I would imagine that this is a screaming deal for all parties.
Personally, I doubt I'll use it. The last thing I need is another toolbar I don't use (actually I would use the spell check, but that's a lot of real estate to give up to somthing that should be on the tools menu). The search bar is already more than I want. By more I mean I generally turn it of an use keywords to forward search terms to google from the address bar.
Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.
Great strategical ploy on Google's parts to really put a chink in the armor of Microsoft. The amount of money they'll spend pushing Firefox is a pennance compared to the cost of marketshare Microsoft will lose. Excellent to see Google really making continued financial backing to Open Source efforts!!!
Best,
url80, The Bounty Network
nice troll! did you copy that from trollaxor.com?
Anybody who thinks "only search as a product" neither understands Google nor the power of search.
Pining for the fjords
The proposed solution would significantly increase Firefox's market share.
Google has no choice but to push firefox as hard as they can. The are facing a threat from the next version of windows / ie. Without a doubt MS is going to use their monopoly desktop to force people to msn search by embedding it into windows. Google should have already been doing this 6 mos ago including a direct download link right on the home page. Same thing goes for open office they need to be using it as a weapon right now also.
Got Code?
Hmm... a scenario:
Google starts providing OpenOffice as a client-side components within Firefox, perhaps downloaded as XPCOM components, perhaps using the GoogleToolbar as the entry point. The browser now provides straightforward access to both thin and thick client functionality.
The gmail, google maps, etc interfaces are melded in too, providing a uniform interface to a free persistent 'office environment' that people can access through any browser, anywhere, with temporary working files stored locally for performance and content network-backed to Google's servers...
This could explain Microsoft's recent launch of Windows Live as - perhaps - a preemptive defensive maneuvour.
Er... no.
That's Google trying to control the plataform. They can contribute to Firefox, either hacking its source or creating extensions. Imagine Firefox with IE marketshare, ~85%, and Google releasing a new product tomorrow, integrated with their Toolbar, on all those desktops.
Plus, Javascript/DOM/XUL support made exactly the way they want.
Buy a Nintendo DS Lite
pretty interesting idea though, looks like the battle of the browsers rages on.
public class null extends java applet { System.out.print ("Tabula Rasa"); }
I run Firefox on my Linux box here at home... and I just installed the google extension to check it out. Upon restarting my Firefox, it comes up for a brief second, then promptly crashes and dissappears! So, I had to load up Opera to go look up how to manually remove extensions so I can get Firefox to run again. Seems like a piece of shitty coding to me. Is this the best Google can do?
Meh.
microsoft owns and controls mozilla AND google, don't get me started on linux!
Emphasis mine.
This implies that if a user's computer has ever had Firefox installed before, it's ineligible for a referral. Also note "up to" a buck, which implies many users (I'd guess users outside of the United States, but it's not stated anywhere I can readily find) will yield less.
Edit: Found some fine print, where it explicity states the PC must never have had Firefox installed before, regardless of the presence or absence of the Google Toolbar. I imagine a LOT of folks have downloaded Firefox, played with it, then uninstalled it, which means AdSense users don't get kickbacks.
I've put up a link on my site regardless, but I'm not expecting BIG CASH PRIZES.
I don't need a toolbar.
Why does Google want's me to use their toolbar?
What benefit has Google me using their toolbar?
Okay, I (re-)install Firefox, publisher gets 1$ then I uninstall the toolbar.
==> Google loses 1$
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
The part that scares me is the "download firefox with google toolbar" part. I hope the official builds never include the google toolbar, that would be like IE bundeling Alexa or something. If people want that toolbar they can go get it. Personally I think the toolbar is very bad. First most of its features are already in Firefox, and the only useful feature that isn't, pagerank, is a major privacy concern since it clearly said it sends every URL you visit to google. So no thx.
Google Inc.'s two billionaire founders, both 32 years old, will soon be cruising the skies in a Boeing 767 wide-body airliner. They bought the used plane earlier this year, Mr. Page says. [Sergey Brin] The 767-200, typically an airline workhorse, is an unusual executive jet. It commonly carries about 180 passengers. Delta Air Lines operates over one hundred 767s. The Italian Air Force has ordered a modified 767 as an airborne tanker for refueling military jets. The 767-200 is almost 70% longer and more than three times as heavy as a conventional executive jet, such as a high-end Gulfstream. Mr. Page says his plane will hold about 50 passengers when its refurbishment is complete. A top Gulfstream business jet typically carries 15 or fewer. He declines to give other details. People in the aviation industry familiar with the planned interior say it will have a sitting area, two staterooms with adjoining lavatories and a shower. Farther aft will be a large sitting-and-dining area. At the rear will be 12 to 16 first-class seats for guests or employees and a large galley. Tech moguls delight in public one-upmanship and the Google founders' 767 raises the bar. Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen owns a fleet of aircraft, but his flagships -- two Boeing 757s -- are smaller than Messrs. Brin and Page's 767.
The Navy Motto "IF it ain't broke Fix It" "A day is wasted if you don't learn something new"
Goog£e
Wow, that's fucking awful. Please don't ever do that again.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
Well, the writing's on the wall, I'm switching to Opera.
It's war! In full heat and full charge! Whomever threw the first chair spilt the bad blood!
Oh and then when it becomes standard, OpenOffice could have an "upgrade" that would _require_ Firefox. Give Microsoft some of their own medicince. As soon as they could push the upgrade, they should.
"Will Google be able to pay the millions for all the downloads?"
[Turn wrist, touch pinky to corner of mouth] "One MILLION dollars!"
(This no longer being the 60's, somehow I think Google will manage.)
In the heady days of '98 and '99, MSN and AOL would pay the PC vendor a nice big bounty fo $10-20 if you signed up with them. But since them microsoft took over the ISP signup process and tried to take the money for themselves, which caused no end of controversy.
I dont know what the current status is, but I know this: the bounty is back. Not from sites like webvan, boo and whoever else used to pay kickbacks to the OEM for signing up to their web site, but just the search engine.
As an aside, if Sun wanted Java preinstalled on all machines, they only had to offer a bounty too. Now that google are prepared to pay, Maybe boxes with firefox+toolbar+java will become standard.
I have Google Adsense, and I have the new REFERENCE tab. But there should be 2 subtabs according to the Google email announcing the service. But I only have one subtab (Adsense) and no "Firefox plus Toolbar". Anyone else with the same problem? Maybe as I am in Argentina I am not qualify for this promotion (it depends of the location?, according to other post).
I already emailed Google customer sevice about it.
DNA in your Linux: DNALinux
Almost got it installed, then was told the extension is not compatable with FF 1.5.
Rapidweather's Linux Screenshots.
I saw this toolbar once at a friend's, and they only used it to search Google without having to get themselves to google.com and for its popup blocker. But Firefox itself does both of these better - popup blocking is supreme now and the mycroft search takes up less space and can search hundreds of sites.
My Google AdSense referral page does not include any reference to the Firefox referral program.
It seems they are limiting it to sites in USA or in English (just guessing).
How about just having a "download Firefox" link on Google.com? They get, what, a billion visitors each day? All the people who really want to spread firefox are already spreading Firefox.
News Flash-- Microsoft paying 2$ for every firefox uninstall.
I'm torn between my irrational love for google and my hate for annoying as hell search bars. Firefox already has a built in google search, from the noticable Google icon in the left corner or from the address bar! This kind of corporate bundling seems to be at the expense of the sanity of a large number of users who would rather not be hassled by some self-righteous spell checking stock ticking product pricing advertising toolbar!
But of course, who can blame them? I already feel queasy thinking about the unholy amount of MSN crap that will be hard-wired into IE 7.0 and Vista. There really isn't any choice for Google if it wants to keep being everybody's favorite $20 billion search company. Begun, the search wars have!
I checked my AdSense account for this option, but I found a referral button for Google AdSense itself instead of the FireFox one: http://kaetemi.be/
Kaetemi
... what adware and spyware companies do. Starting to lose respect for Google.
Blame the user, not the software.
...that the little search box by default set to google is enough to warrant this?
Well, besides the fact that I have all that functionality in my bookmarks already. . but I went to try it out and I found out it was for Windows only.
WTF? If they're in such a hurry to get it out there then you'd think they'd at least build a copy for Linux users. I mean buildable source would be fine. They don't even have to package it as debs.
Has anyone else noticed that installing the Google Toolbar in Firefox causes "title" tags in images not to display properly? I uninstalled the Toolbar and went back to the Googlebar extension because of that. It can be rather frustrating if you don't know what is causing it.
Do not read this sig.
History!
Got Code?
"Looking for any information on how to get my Creative Audigy to not pop my speakers when I shutdown or restart my PC"
:)
Presumably you want Creative to fix the problem at the hardware level. Since the pop indicates poor design or poor components in certain areas around the op amps.
The easiest fix for Creative (somwewhat cheesy tho) is to have them modify their drivers to introduce a band pass filter during the power on/off sequence of the computer. I suppose this part assumes Windows OS.
The best solution is to turn off the speakers until you need them. Very rarely do you actually need speakers turned on during the power up/down cycle.
A DIY approach would be to make your own interruption circuit somewhere in the speaker power chain that is broken by an opto iso relay control powered by a USB port or some other port that is activated after the inital power on sequence occurs. Little perl program could turn off that port during the power down cycle.
That last one sounds kinda fun and useful for other home projects as well.
-FlynnMP3
This isn't meant as a troll, but honestly what's the point of the google toolbar on Firefox?
I could understand wanting to have integrated google search and pop-up blocking for IE, but Firefox has google search built right in (along with several other searches), and I can find thing on a given page easy enough with ^F. If I find a term on a page I want to google for it's as easy as highlighting it, ^T, middle click into the google search window.
Given that, what's the point of having a google toobar for Firefox?
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Google pays Mozilla foundation each time someone uses Firefox's built in Google search and picks an advertisement. If Firefox users use the google toolbar, they don't have to pay anyone except the one time $1.
The fact that you cannot correctly spell "ridiculous" is absolutely ridiculous.
I cant believe how lame this idea is by Google. There will be a complete feast of recruiting over at forums such as DigitalPoint etc. I can easily see how people will try to divide their income into as many accounts they can possible create to get that 100 bucks for a signup.
So lame. So 1996. Go google, king of pyramid-schemes.
But hey, I'm willing to advertise Firefox (and most other non-IE browsers) for free.
Think Deeply.
And also, none of them have noticed that this is perhaps long awaited Google Browser, in some way...
One that hath name thou can not otter
What's more interesting is that Google now has a business model in play that pays for conversions rather than clicks. Firefox and adsense signups are the beta testers.
Is this the bump that Firefox needs to boost downloads? Will Google be able to pay the millions for all the downloads?
Sheesh, would you say that if it were the Yahoo! toolbar? How will this help FireFox exactly? Having a bunch of people list the Google Toolbar for FireFox will apparently help it's spread?
Nothing against Google... but "this will help FireFox" seems like a very odd way to connect the dots.
I'd really like to see something on OpenOffice's scale and compatibility level done in more of an AJAX style, as daunting as that is, rather than see it be an XPCOM component. I don't like being locked into Firefox any more that I like being locked into IE. Ultimately we should be free of lockin everywhere, with the only requirement being that the user platform conform to certain open standards. XPCOM quibble aside, I very much look forward to the future you describe. I think the key component is that Google needs to start bundling both secure and public remote storage with their Google Accounts. Public storage can be searched and viewed by anyone, and might even include straight up static web content hosting in addition to serving heirarchies of user published files. Private storage would be securely encrypted on the client side with a key you keep on a USB device or something, and only sent over the network and stored in encrypted form. It could all be done in an open standards way with a little work.
Google can do this without it costing them as much disk space as it would seem, because a whole lot of the public content is compressable and/or redundant with the public content of other users (if 400 users store the same file to public storage, even under different filenames, they can all be stored as a reference to the same content using hash lookups). Private storage would have to be fairly limited in size, perhaps with an option to buy more space.
11*43+456^2
from bundling a toolbar that sends information back to base on every pageview
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
The firefox referral option isn't showing up in my adsense account, there is only the tab for referring to the adsense program. Is this a US only thing?
Loose lips lose spit.
1) Can Google afford this? The answer is Yes.
2) Who gets paid? Only first time users, apparently and only once. So that means that all of us Firefox users aren't going to get "up to" $1.
3) How is this going to benefit Google or Firefox?
I like the idea of Google and Mozilla teaming up. The Google search bar already appears on Firefox by default and the Google toolbar is helpful for certain people. It all depends on whether you really use it or not. I find it useful for translation and searches. Making my searching more efficient is the goal. It benefits Firefox because most people who have never heard of Firefox use IE withought realizing the problems it has. They have heard of Google and think of it as a reputable company -- therefore, if a reputable company such as Google would partner with a company like Firefox, they would be more willing to switch to Firefox.
Are there people who try Firefox and end up switching back to IE?
"Curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal!"
They certainly have enough money to pay the "milions" of FireFox downloads. And rest assured that they will MAKE money out of it as well.
The prime reason for M$ being number one is because M$ bundeled the browser with its operating system. I certainly hope that FireFox or why not KHTML-based browser beats m$ explorer. IMHO the only way to make the web more secure. Heck why not abandon m$ altogheter and switch to Linux or Mac. Stories of viruses, worms, and zombie's will all soon be a thing of the past.
Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. T. S. Eliot
Resistence is Futile!
-Alex. http://bit.ly/1iVPtfA
You seem to have overlooked the most common factor always present at the unstable systems you have worked on.
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
I was just wondering if there would be a similar positive response if Microsoft started paying a small amount to people for using MSN Search or making IE only websites. What do YOU think ?
The subject of Critical Mass for Firefox is an interesting one; we can perhaps estimate when it will arrive by looking at the first browser war. The start of the "Viewable With Any Browser" campaign is a good indication of when IE began reaching critical mass, so sometime between the release of IE 3.0 in 1996 and 4.0 in 1997. Similar to today, the vast majority of the market share was divided between just two browsers, so let's just look at the ratio of the top two browsers to one another. When IE 4.0 was released it was 72% NN and 18% IE, a 4:1 ratio. We can take this as the upper limit to critical mass.
:)
Assuming that trends continue as they have (where IE declines are translated almost exclusively into FF gains), the 4:1 ratio will be reached when FF rises to 19% and IE slips to 76%. This has already happened in some countries (e.g. Germany) and is not far off for the U.S. (OneStat reports 81% IE and 14% FF) or Europe as a whole (XiTi reported 15% FF in September). The only question will be how long it takes...
We can estimate that as follows. To rise to 19%, FF needs to increase by about a third in the U.S. If that's proportional to overall FF downloads, the counter needs to reach ~133 M. In the 25 days since it hit 100M, there have been 5M more downloads (~200K/day). Doing the math, that means that critical mass will be reached no later than early April, 2006.
No surprise then that M$ had to uncouple IE7 from Vista; the estimated date for IE7's release is December 2005 with Vista not for a year after that. Yet I think IE7 is going to have a hard time slowing FF down since FF 1.5 is due out in December too
What if they run out of Firefoxes? Is the Mozilla Foundation ready to start manufacturing new Firefoxes that fast? Won't that cause forced overtime at the factory, overworked laborers, spot shortages, gray marketing, maybe even out-sourcing? Somebody's got to look into this!
Everything I've ever learned the hard way was based on a statistically invalid sample.
I hate users who assume its a programmers fault that something doesn't work right when in reality its something else on their specific system like a driver (for games)
Most of the driver issues that I've run into while trying to switch a given machine to a different operating system have involved completely unsupported peripherals that are already paid for.
or dependancy that everyone else in the world but them have.
For dependencies, the install system (msi, rpm, deb, ./configure, etc) should alert the user to the problem. Otherwise, it is the developer's problem if the installer fails to pick up a prerequisite.
I can easily see how people will try to divide their income into as many accounts they can possible create to get that 100 bucks for a signup.
And I can see Google denying these referral bonuses based on matching tax ID numbers.
Looks like google are getting into affiliate marketing
You remember a couple months ago when the /. headlines were "Is Google outgrowing itself?"
That was when GOOG hit $300. It's currently $390.
you can have my violent video games when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Prime UID Club
... before doing dodgy queries such as "Linux is not ready for the enterprise" inurl:asp
Thanks for the comment - glad you substantially agree.
:-) They could also build it into say, froogle, gmail, etc.
> done in more of an AJAX style
Unfortunately, AJAX, while useful:
(a) isn't responsive enough
(b) is not rich enough.
(c) doesn't have deep enough access to local resources (eg: local drag and drop, copy and paste, vision and voice input processing, spellchecker and grammer checker processing,)
(d) require a total rewrite (perhaps innovative automated MFC/Swing -> HTML translation libraries can help)
(e) depends totally on network access (no ability to work disconnected)
That's why XPCOM would be better - users aren't willing to sacrifice all this current functionality just for network-backed storage.
However google can proceed to write (say) a way to automatically translate openoffice display primitives (eg: combobox, list selection) to HTML and provide that functionality over the web. (It may even be faster on some machines, given how slow openoffice is compared to MS Office
For eg: I could go to froogle, search for something, copy/ paste a table comparing vendors for that item into a gmail _as a embedded spreadsheet_, forward that to my boss who sort the _copy_ of the data using the spreadsheet function (the live Froogle data itself may have changed), and approves something for purchase. This could be scripted (on Google's servers) with OpenOffice Basic
Then again, this could lead to more Firefox users in the long run, so it's not like Mozilla gets a bad deal.
Clever signature text goes here.
To alledge fraud is to assume the presence of a reciever of ill gotten gains.
This would require that common downloaders have an 'arrangement' with the advertising
company. This could be alleviated by specifying in the offer that exempts current
employees, agents, owners, etc. from participation in the offer. In any case that
leaves me out, ironically, because I am a user of the parent program, Mozilla. Mozilla
seems to have become the ignored older brother in this whole love-in; yet Mozilla
is far and away the better program. There is not enough flexibility in Firefox. One
problem is lack of control of whether e-mail letters automatically display whenever the e-mail cursor is over a particular letter. This in windows would be a show stopper! Even windows outlook express is'nt dumb enough to fall for that one. Another is that Firefox
AND Mozilla have no provision for fine control of javascript and java like Linux's Konqueror browser. Many sites do not like Konqueror and are so afraid of it that their page routines display a blank screen to any browser feared to be Konqueror. Got news for them. Konqueror has the ability to display the raw java and HTML as well so the page info can not only be displayed but also analysed.
My penis weeps for you, because you try to read too much into this. Google is doing it solely to get more hits to their site, as well as provide incentive to move people away from Internet Explorer. There's nothing more to it than that.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Microsoft is a company that has been sentenced for abusing their monopoly in OS market to gain and maintain positions in other markets, amongs others the browser market. It seems quite obvious to me that them doing more to maintain and build the monopoly in the browser market is not a good thing, while google doing something to even out the market is good. The difference is as usual that MS has a monopoly and has been abusing this. Also, MS would be pushing a non-standard compliant browser, while google would be pushing a much more standard compliant browser.
There is already a option to run OpenOffice inside Firefox using the npsoplugin.dll
Now if they'd integrate it a bit more, make it possible to save documents to Google servers over WebDAV or such (Base, Gmail or whatever)...