Why Has Google Spent a Half-Billion Dollars on Firefox? | Hacker News Reader

Why Has Google Spent a Half-Billion Dollars on Firefox?

bloomberg.com

22 pointsthunderbong14 comments

Perhaps a better question is what Mozilla is wasting all that cash on - it's not going to Firefox development, afaict.

Mozilla could invest that money and ensure its perpetual survival while not being beholden to any outside interests, instead it's being used to fund pet social projects.

This reliance on Google is an existential risk, Mozilla's leadership should be laser focused on building alternative income streams before Google turns off the spigot.

I do think they are trying, look at pocket,vpn,fakespot etc they are trying to branch out and diversify

It does give them something to point to when facing antitrust questions. And it acts as a sort of incubator for browser innovations -- that can be 'borrowed' from the open source project. Commercial sense doesn't just mean dollar return.

Microsoft famously bailed out Apple https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/29/steve-jobs-and-bill-gates-wh....

Edit: As reply notes, that's code to highlight the quoted section of the article. I'm leaving my original comment below, though it's less relevant than I'd intended.

________________________________________________________

NB, your link has a long bit of cruft on it.

Decrufted: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/29/steve-jobs-and-bill-gates-wh...

That's

  https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/29/steve-jobs-and-bill-gates-what-happened-when-microsoft-saved-apple.html

Rather than:

  https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/29/steve-jobs-and-bill-gates-what-happened-when-microsoft-saved-apple.html#:~:text=In%20August%20of%201997%2C%20Gates,%24150%20million%20investment%20in%20Apple

That's not cruft actually (though it may initially look like it). You'll notice that everything after the # is used used to highlight the specific quote/terms referred to. It's actually a pretty useful use of the URL (and not just adding in trackers!)

When you click the link, it will highlight the sentence.

Ah, thanks.

I'm too used to stripping tracking codes from URLs, I guess.

Though the highlight can also be used in that manner.

TBH I only realized because I almost stripped it out as well!

I feel vindicated!!!

;-)

>Microsoft famously bailed out Apple

you mean entered settlement after being caught stealing https://www.theregister.com/1998/10/29/microsoft_paid_apple_...

Firefox has less than 3% user market share.

They can point all they want but it is basically insignificant in the overall scheme of things.

> But critics say the Mozilla deal makes little commercial sense given Firefox’s dwindling user base.

I suppose in the long run it's not unlikely things will change. And for Google, it would be a shame if they had lost their relationship with Mozilla, by the time users flock away from Chrome. Not too unlikely if they continue baking this user tracking and add targeting into their product.

(...Though the tea leaves might suggest a more rapid decline in Google Search than in Google Chrome...)

What was the money spent on? Could it possibly cost that much to maintain a browser?

Yes, Browsers are as complex as OS's and are multiple layers deep

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