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?"
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
I think it invites a massive fraud potential which not only drains money, but bandwidth.
Anybody who thinks "only search as a product" neither understands Google nor the power of search.
Pining for the fjords
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.
Sorry to bitchslap you with facts, but Google just introduced a major desktop product based entirely on IE and COM/ActiveX infrastructure. Just the kind of Internet product that Microsoft has been talking about since Pearl Harbor Day, 1995.
If Google actually thought that way, they would build their stuff on Mozilla technology. But facts speak louder than words.
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
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.