Google 3, Mozilla 0.
Once upon a time, Google played warm and fuzzy and gave non-profit Mozilla a bunch of money to embed their smooth and sexy search in Mozilla’s super-cool new browser, Firefox. So far, so good; everyone’s happy. Google search grows and they aren’t being evil, and Mozilla has the money for R&D on awesome new things.
Years pass, and Google quietly develops their own browser in-house. Plenty of people figured they might do that, but plenty of others figured there was no point - wasn’t that what the Mozilla partnership was for? Personally, I don’t know what that partnership was for. Mozilla has plenty of money for now, but Google isn’t going to be using that distribution channel after 2011, so they’re going to have to find a new source for 88% of their income. Uh-oh. Like any company whose business lies on the web, that won’t be easy.
Why did Google renew the Firefox deal right before releasing Chrome? I can’t find numbers on what kind of market share Google grabbed through the Firefox channel, but given that the open-source browser is still working on critical mass, I’m going to assume it wasn’t a great ROI for the search behemoth.
Anyway, today it appears that others are jumping on the screw-Firefox-let’s-use-Chrome bandwagon: Flock, a ’social browser’ with less market share than the discontinued Netscape (even though it’s been around for 3 years; I tried it back in ‘06 and didn’t derive any value from it. For their sake I hope it’s improved). They claim Mozilla folks are unresponsive and Chrome is easier to work with. Is this the beginning of another browser trend? Or is it a silly decision by one small company that just happened to attract TechCrunch’s attention (Flock is a TC darling, after all)? Is anyone else going this direction? I’m waiting to hear the followup on this story.
Something else to think about - the mobile web is exploding. Microsoft bundles IE with Windows Mobile , just like they do with computer operating systems. Android phones will soon offer a version of Chrome. Apple’s Safari is spreading with iPhones. Even Opera, barely found on 1 of 50 computers, has ridiculous command over the tiny screen. But who’s pushing mobile Firefox?
