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Google and Mozilla: Partners, Not Competitors

Posted by Soulskill on from the one-big-happy-family dept.

Much has been said about the (perceived) rivalry between Chrome and Firefox, but Google engineer Peter Kasting had enough when he read an article trying to discern Google's true motives for signing a new Firefox search deal. Kasting posted to Google+ to clarify what value the company sees in funding a "rival" browser. Quoting: "People never seem to understand why Google builds Chrome no matter how many times I try to pound it into their heads. It's very simple: the primary goal of Chrome is to make the web advance as much and as quickly as possible. That's it. It's completely irrelevant to this goal whether Chrome actually gains tons of users or whether instead the web advances because the other browser vendors step up their game and produce far better browsers. Either way the web gets better. Job done. The end. So it's very easy to see why Google would be willing to fund Mozilla: Like Google, Mozilla is clearly committed to the betterment of the web, and they're spending their resources to make a great, open-source web browser. Chrome is not all things to all people; Firefox is an important product because it can be a different product with different design decisions and serve different users well."

5 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Google and Mozilla by InterestingFella · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So it's very easy to see why Google would be willing to fund Mozilla

    That is true, but not for the reasons stated. Google is paying Mozilla around $100 million of commissions per year. By the very nature of the deal that relationship is poisoned. Note that Peter is an engineer, and it is very easy to say they want "better web" and stuff like that, but if Google could avoid paying $100 million a year, they would do so. It's better to put that money into their own product, and they really want to do that, but they can't because they would lose users. Google profits from the deal, but at the same time they would want to improve their own market so they don't need to pay anyone else in future.

    1. Re:Google and Mozilla by theweatherelectric · · Score: 5, Informative

      Google is paying Mozilla around $100 million of commissions per year.

      It's now around $300 million a year.

    2. Re:Google and Mozilla by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...if Google could avoid paying $100 million a year, they would do so. It's better to put that money into their own product...

      Not really. They're paying that money in order to be able to fight MSIE/Bing with two sharp weapons instead of one. If they cut off Firefox's oxygen and pumped the $100 million into Chrome, the pressure on MSIE would shrink and not grow. So this absolutely is a wise investment.

  2. Re:No, Google like diversity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually the really nice thing with google is that they can advance the web and at the same time make tons of money. More power to them. Making money aint bad at all. Since consumers aren't damaged in any way (quite the opposite), i'm all for what they are doing.

  3. Google funds ad vector for $300 million / year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Google engineer demonstrates why he's in engineering rather than marketing or sales. Details at 11.

    Google is spending $300 million / year to:

    - Make sure that users of the popular Firefox browser continue to see Google's search engine, and thus Google's ads by default.

    - Make sure that Firefox users continue to NOT see Microsoft's ads by default.

    End of story. There's no magnanimity here, no making the world a better place. Just business. For that, $300 million / year sounds like a bargain.

    Think about it. How much do you think Google pays Apple to make sure that Google is the default search engine for Mobile Safari? Think that Apple does that for free? Same exact deal with Firefox. But throw in a quaintly deluded engineer's explanation of things.