Submitted 9 months ago by dysprosium@lemmy.dbzer0.com to [deleted]
Currently, Google pays Firefox’s bill by having them set their default search engine to Google.
This will no longer be when Chrome is in the hands of another party. DOJ is currently advocating for this forced sellout.
So will Firefox be no more after that?
The opposite. Google won’t be able to leverage chrome to drive website design and Internet policy anymore and it’ll give smaller companies an opportunity to get a better foothold in the market. That’s the whole point in breaking them off from Google in the first place.
Well, depends on who buys it and what happens to Chromium, the open source thing that is not chrome.
Currently, Google pays Firefox’s bill by having them set their default search engine to Google.
This will no longer be when Chrome is in the hands of another party. DOJ is currently advocating for this forced sellout.
Why does Alphabet not controlling Chrome mean Alphabet would suddenly stop paying Mozilla to make Google Search the default search in Firefox? That’s totally unrelated.
(Saying Alphabet instead of Google to help differentiate between Google and its products.)
It’s another clause in the anti trust case that paying FF and Safari for being the default search engine is anticompetitive
Then say that in the post lmao
Even if Google stopped paying Mozilla, the organization has enough in savings to operate for several years. That’s plenty of time to cut back on spending and find other revenue sources. My only concern would be that they cut back on Firefox development rather than what I would consider a side project.
The majority cost of Firefox is engineering.
Any cutbacks will negatively affect the ability for Firefox to keep up and will probably start a slow decline towards collapse and irrelevance.
I don’t follow your logic. It’ll be even more important for them to get exposure through Firefox if they lose control of Chrome, not less.
They were doing fine before they started taking money from Google, I’m sure they’ll do okay after they stop.
Is there are even a “before”? The very first release of Firefox was in 2004. Google started paying Mozilla in 2004. The only time there was no funding from Google was 2014-2017. In that time Yahoo took over that part.
There was however the 2 year period from 2002 - 2004 when Firefox was still “Phoenix” which was mostly funded by AOL.
To my knowledge, there is not a single moment in the life of Firefox when it has had to get by without external funding and 95% of that time, it was google.
It probably won’t die in the next decade…
But also Internet standards are only getting more complicated… Eventually there will be no browsers left, and we’ll have shifted to an app-only paradigm. Isn’t that exciting.
Godort@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Google search is not the same thinb as google Chrome. Search still sees a benefit in paying to be the default search provider in Firefox.
mkwt@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Part of the DOJ ask is that the Google search business should be enjoined from paying for preferential s default status on other platforms.
They want to prohibit the Firefox arrangement as part of the anti trust matter.
Squizzy@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Which is justified in all fairness, firefox is too dependent on monopoly for support to be competitive going forward
dysprosium@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
The main reason of Google’s financing is probably because they don’t want to be accused of a browser monopoly.
I never said that
VerPoilu@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
Google has been paying Firefox since before Chrome existed.
ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Google pays Firefox to have Google Search as the default search engine. Chrome is not the major money maker. It doesn’t even earn any money.