Is The Google/Firefox Relationship A Conflict Of Interest?
from the trust-but-verify dept
CNET's Chris Soghoian raises some concerns about Google's close relationship with the Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit that owns the Firefox trademark. He points out that the vast majority of Mozilla's revenue comes from Google, and notes a number of ways that Firefox is configured to use Google as the default for various online services. Soghoian is right that close scrutiny of these sorts of relationships is healthy. However, it's pretty hard to get too worked up about the specific problems he cites. First, he notes that Mozilla has chosen not to include a couple of ad- and cookie-blocking plugins with the default Firefox package. Soghoian thinks that's a sign of something fishy going on, since those products would deprive Google of revenue. But there are thousands of plugins out there, and all sorts of reasons they might have chosen to exclude any given one. Soghoian offers no evidence it was at Google's behest. But more to the point, even if it were Google's doing, I don't understand why that would be a bad thing. Google makes a profit by selling advertising and shares a significant share of those revenues with Mozilla, which Mozilla then spends on making Firefox better. That sounds like a win-win-win proposition to us. Finally, given Google's excellent track record of making ads actually useful, relevant, and non-intrusive, it's not at all clear that users even want Firefox to block its ads. As long as Mozilla doesn't try to stop users from installing ad-blocking plugins themselves, I don't see the problem.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: firefox, open source
Companies: google, mozilla
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Google and Firefox
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Google vs. Microsoft
It would be interesting to go back and look at Google's complaints about Microsoft and see how they compare to Google/Firefox.
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Re: Google vs. Microsoft
They don't. Nothing that I have seen about FireFox makes me think it gives Google any specific advantage. Sure Google is the default search, but it is also by far the most popular search. You can't possible justify them using a less popular search engine and making 90% of the people that install FireFox reset it as soon as they get it.
Most of the favoritism that Google complained about was involving the fact that Microsoft was actually working to attempt to stifle web pages it did not like and browsers it did not like. For instance, that whole fiasco where they make their Microsoft.com site not work with browsers other then IE... and did so intentionally. Recently they seem to be backing off that hyper aggressive stance (probably tired of being sued).
PS: There is no comparison betweent he MS/IE relationship and Google/FireFox. Microsoft is actually developing IE, for their OS, for their website technologies, and for their server technologies. Google is funding FireFox and is set as the default search engine.
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re: Google vs. Microsoft
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Another blogger "looking" for a story
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Google and Firefox
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Huh?
When you download Firefox, the only plug-in automatically installed is TalkBack. Why would Firefox make their download even bigger by adding a bunch of plug-ins somebody might not want anyway?
Unless he is talking about Firefox not adding it as part of the browser (like the pop-up blocker) which would be silly as well. I mean, just because some people are overly annoyed with add does not mean the majority of Internet users care if there are some advertisements on the pages they look at. And if they do, easily fixed with a Firefox Add-In. Does this Soghoian guy even know what he is talking about?
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Cant speak to the blacklist part, tho...
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dangerous to default ad blocking
If I were in Mozilla's shoes, I would not include any ad blocking plug-ins by default. Being one of the main revenue streams for most internet sites, it would put a nice target on Mozilla's back for a lawsuit. Just ask ReplayTV who got sued for auto-skipping commercials of recorded tv shows. It's the same reason Tivo doesn't implement automatic commercial skipping. The technology to do it is simple enough and available.
Mozilla offering a free open platform for development allows for individuals to easily implement this and share it with everyone else. It makes it more difficult and less worth while to sue an individual for creating or installing an ad blocking plug-in. It's also hard to see someone suing Mozilla for having an open free plug-in system where individual users can do what they like.
Sure, this may benefit Google leaving out the plug-in, but I think Mozilla is much safer and has more to gain by leaving it out of their own accord.
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No plugins by default
There are dozens of useful plugins that do not come with Firefox. Firefox installs NO ONE's plugins. Google does not get a boost there.
An example of plugins
tweak network - to speed up browsing on high-speed internet
google preview - show pictures of websites on google search results.
customize-google - customize how google displays results
adblock plus - to block ads
If Firefox was about pushing google, they would bundle google sync and google notebook with the browser. Since they are both usefull, and help promote "google lock-in".
But they don't. Firefox follows the policy they have had all along. They make a decent browser, and if the user wants to customize it, they can download and install whatever plugins they like.
I wish they would make a customization kit. I.E. I want these plugins, these themes, and these settings installed and configured globably. Then someone can run that installer and have a customized version of Firefox. That would be good for ISP, or company deployments.
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the real issue here ...
btw - I'm still LMAO at the article's title ... "A Dangerous Conflict ..." blah blah blah - as Bugs would say: "what a droob, what an ultramaroon, what a gull-a-bull ..."
FUD FUD FUD and more FUD
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Whatever
2) Whatever development Google sponsors is still free to all, including competing businesses.
3) The extensions aren't included by default because that's the whole point of Firefox. It includes basic functionality, and you customize it with extensions.
4) Who else is going to provide a good phishing blacklist for free? Microsoft?
I think he's looking for demons where none really exist. Google may be in a position to do bad, but I really don't think they have yet.
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