Mozilla Contemplates a Future Without Google

An anonymous reader points out a story at Business Week which begins: "Mozilla Chair Mitchell Baker says the Chrome browser is making the foundation behind Firefox rethink its reliance on revenues from Google. Since Google introduced its own Web browser, Chrome, the prospect that Google may not re-up the three-year contract set to expire in 2011 has Mozilla considering other search partnerships and ways to generate revenue, Baker said. 'There are probably other search engines that would pay us more money,' Baker says. Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN, Google's two main search rivals, come to mind, but Baker says smaller search engines wouldn't be discounted should such a situation arise. One player Baker won't identify 'offered a blank check to replace Google,' she says. Set to launch on certain Nokia phones in late spring, Fennec is the first Mozilla browser optimized for mobile platforms. If it gains traction with enough handset makers and mobile users, Fennec could represent another way to draw revenue from a partnering search engine."

Comments

MSN? Not bloody likely

[rxmd]

'There are probably other search engines that would pay us more money,' Baker says. Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN, Google's two main search rivals, come to mind

Well, MSN doesn't really come at least to my mind when I think of a search engine that could sponsor Firefox development.

Re:Google Won't Let this Happen

[caffeinejolt]

Agreed. This graph pretty much summarizes why dropping their Mozilla relationship would be incredibly stupid on Google's part.

Re:Linux fork

[bunratty]

IceWeasel isn't a fork of Firefox. It's a version of Firefox that's been rebranded so that it doesn't have the trademark and copyright issues that Firefox has.

Not Microsoft

[dakirw]

According to the article:

One player Baker won't identify "offered a blank check to replace Google," she says. She notes it wasn't Microsoft.