this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
153 points (96.4% liked)

Firefox

17952 readers
451 users here now

A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] sub_ubi@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Doesn't Mozilla rely on Google for default search? Does this change that relationship?

[–] hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Doesn’t Mozilla rely on Google for default search?

and money...mainly the money.

Does this change that relationship?

Unknown at this time.

[–] dan@upvote.au 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah... Things like this partnership, plus publishing posts against things Google is doing (https://blog.mozilla.org/en/privacy-security/googles-protected-audience-protects-advertisers/), might spook Google a bit. Mozilla rely on receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from Google every year. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The fact that Mozilla is so dependent on Google is the actual problem here, diversifying where they get funding from is precisely what they should be doing going forward.

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Mozilla has diversified... By jumping into AI.

  • Spent $65-265 million on AI that we know of
  • Bought an AI company for an undisclosed sum and funded more AI research for unknown amounts
  • Brought AI to Kenya (in a move strangely reminiscent of cryptocurrency companies trying to fix the "unranked" problem

And shuttering previous diversification products and laying off staff.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago

Saw that, totally can't imagine how any of that is going to backfire.

[–] dan@upvote.au 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I definitely agree with you, but finding another partner to get hundreds of millions of dollars per year isn't trivial.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 months ago

Sure, but finding more partners is crucial for long term survival, so if Mozilla never reaches out to anybody for fear of offending Google then they're always gonna be stuck in this sort of abusive relationship. Becoming so reliant on Google in the first place shouldn't have happened, but it's better to start fixing that sooner than later. It's also worth noting that the main reason Google funds FF is to protect themselves from antitrust litigation. As long as FF is around and gets a bit of usage, then Google can point to it to say that Chrome isn't a browser monopoly.

[–] ebits21@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 months ago

But is Qwant going to be default?