Google and Mozilla may or may not be working on a Web browser together, but the two are cosier than ever with Firefox's latest release.
The search company is newly featured, centre-stage, on the default home page of Mozilla's open-source browser Firefox 1.0, which was made available for free download on Tuesday morning. In only two days, an estimated 2.5 million people have downloaded the Web browser, according to Mitchell Baker, president of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation. Firefox 1.0 is available on ZDNet UK Downloads.
Google's prominence on the browser underscores the foundation's desire to grow Firefox from its early roots in the Web developer community to an audience of Joe and Jane Surfers, who are likely to use search.
"Our entire start page is new, and that reflects our ongoing goal of appealing to the general consumer market," Baker said.
In addition, Google is hosting the Firefox start page because, according to Baker, the company's technical infrastructure is more capable of supporting high volumes of traffic.
Rumours have circulated for months that Google is developing a Web browser, potentially in partnership with Mozilla. And while both sides have denied it, ties still seem to be growing between the two outfits. In another symbiosis, Mozilla outlined plans this week to work closer with desktop search providers to develop similar capabilities for upcoming versions of Firefox. That could play nicely into Google's recent push into desktop search.
More imminently, their relationship could greatly benefit Google if the Firefox browser were to take off with consumers like some people expect, given the growing discontent with Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer browser. Google makes the lion's share of its revenue from advertising placements next to search results, and Firefox could help fuel demand for its search engine and advertising.
In earlier versions of Firefox, Google has been a resident on the upper right-hand box of the browser -- and it is the same in version 1.0. Firefox users can use a pull-down menu from the search box to navigate the Web with Yahoo, Amazon.com and others. And they can change the default from Google to other search engines such as Ask Jeeves.
Baker said Mozilla has assembled a "set of different search partners" including Yahoo. She would not say whether there is a financial relationship between Mozilla and Google. But typically, Google pays its partners a share of revenue from search-related advertising.
Talkback
Google and FireFox SPECULATION ON "GBUY" EXTENSION
It would be a foolish political move to alienate the open source fanatics... and Google is not foolish. -- they take the easy assumption that they're hiring browser guys to create a browser. Not a lot of thought or knowledge goes into that assumption.
Since Google is not going to make any money on a free browser, why reinvent the wheel? This makes it a foolish business assumption on top of a foolish political move.
But if Google can PARTNER with a pool of fanatical and talented developers, then they have free labor and much more importantly MOMENTUM. Plus these FireFox guys admit to media they will be working for FireFox at the same time. All signs point to partnership.
While Microsoft has market dominance with IE, there is no way that Google would ever approach them with regards to partnership, as they are a clear competitor in search, albeit a VERY WEAK competitor in terms of the technology. Ironically, Microsoft just released its weak and very late search technology today. However inferior, Microsoft has substantial cash flow and means, and have proven they enjoy taking over ideas which are in their sphere of influence, and having browser market dominance gives them leverage Google wouldn't want. FireFox is the perfect choice because it has momentum and is frankly a superior browser technology. (If you haven't tried FireFox, download and try printing a webpage from both, as one of many examples... not to mention the tabbed format FireFox has, the many extensions, etc)
THEORY: It is my speculation and theory that Google is working with the FireFox experts to create a "Killer Extension". (replacing the Killer App) Now, what extension could Google charge a small fee for or a small % fee for that would make it ubiquitous and worth their while to pursue? A company with this wide of a scope doesn't look for niche applications, they look to change the world. What does Google do best -- search for text, products, and services, right? Perhaps they could team with FireFox and create a killer extension that had functionality similar to EBAY but was on everyone's browser? I'll coin the term "GBUY" to go along with their recent GMAIL naming convention. Since Google already dominates search, they could then continue leverage their search position to dominate the commerce through which many internet items were purchased. GBUY could provide a service to not only consumers, but also vendors making it easier to setup and transact all type of business over the web. They already have AdWords which accepts payments from Vendors on a per-click basis, and they already have AdSense which delivers payments to millions of website owners. The payment infrastructure is essentially there, and as everyone knows, the search dominance and capabilities continue to expand (see Google TV, Google Images, Froogle, et al).
Instictively, this might be the clue that shows Google going after such a market and that something is there. You heard it here first.
http://holtsblog.blogspot.com/