Mozilla and Google Renew Firefox Advertising Pact
By Harry McCracken | Tuesday, December 20, 2011 at 11:39 am
From Mozilla, news that makes me say “whew”:
We’re pleased to announce that we have negotiated a significant and mutually beneficial revenue agreement with Google. This new agreement extends our long term search relationship with Google for at least three additional years.
“Under this multi-year agreement, Google Search will continue to be the default search provider for hundreds of millions of Firefox users around the world,” said Gary Kovacs, CEO, Mozilla.
The money that funds Firefox comes principally from all the clicks by Firefox users who use Google in the browser. Until this renewal deal was signed, people wondered about a disastrous scenario in which the Firefox product was essentially defunded. Now we know that won’t happen.
In its 2010 fiscal year, by the way, Mozilla made $123 million, mostly from search revenues from Google and other partners. That makes it a rather well-funded non-profit. Fodder for further discussion: How well is it translating that money into a better Firefox (and other products), better Web technologies, and a better Web, period?
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2 Comments For This Post
December 20th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Not really a choice for Google to renew or, not.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:01 pm
If they pay $5 million to MPEG-LA, then Firefox would no longer need to rely on FlashPlayer for MPEG-4 playback. Not only would that be an improvement to the browser, but it would pay for itself (like MPEG-4 always does) because standardized, high-quality audio video playback would help them gain and/or maintain users whose clicks are worth more than $5 million.