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Google, Mozilla extend search box deal

By | August 28, 2008, 1:09pm PDT

That little Google search box in the upper right part of your Firefox browser will be sticking around through 2011, according to Mozilla.

mozillabox.pngMitchell Baker, Chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation or Chief Lizard Wrangler depending on what you prefer, said in a blog post that Google has extended its financial pact with Mozilla through 2011. She wrote:

We’ve just renewed our agreement with Google for an additional three years. This agreement now ends in November of 2011 rather than November of 2008, so we have stability in income. We’re also learning more all the time about how to use Mozilla’s financial resources to help contributors through infrastructure, new programs, and new types of support from employees.

“Stability in income” is putting it mildly. That little search box in Firefox basically bankrolls Mozilla. In 2006, Mozilla had $66.8 million in revenue, up from $52.9 million in 2005. The 2007 figures should land some time in the fall. The revenue from Google has enabled Mozilla to build a portfolio to fund itself on an ongoing basis.

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Topics

Google Inc., Financial, Mozilla Corp., Web Browsers, Financial Accounting, Operational Accounting, Internet, Finance, Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: Google, Mozilla extend search box deal
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 11th Oct
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0 Votes
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A big thanks to Google for doing their part to fund the free and open
DonnieBoy 28th Aug 2008
internet. Without Firefox, and Google's funding, we would end up with a MS proprietary internet, with lots of MS toll booths.
0 Votes
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LOL!
AllKnowingAllSeeing 28th Aug 2008
Like the google toll boths that are there now?
No money changes hands on our end, just your personal data sold by Google to the highest bidder.

You have an odd sense of "free".
0 Votes
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You're forgetting something there...
T1Oracle 29th Aug 2008
The box can be turned off and it only takes 4 clicks. So FireFox is free.
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Don't forget...
JDThompson 1st Sep 2008
There's always "scroogle" (https://ssl.scroogle.org/) if you're worried about google data harvesting. There's even a Firefox search engine plug-in for it: http://mycroft.mozdev.org/search-engines.html?name=scroogle

And also the "Customize Google" add-on: http://www.customizegoogle.com/
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Great News!
jorjitop 28th Aug 2008
Keeps Mozilla funded, and you can add other search engines as you wish.
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RE: Google, Mozilla extend search box deal
ZachE84 28th Aug 2008
Thank you Google! But honestly I took that box off my Firefox. It's pointless! Put your search query into the address bar - it does the same thing!
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Not Pointless
Greenknight_z Updated - 30th Aug 2008
The search box has the UI to switch search engines, so you're not stuck with just Google. Also, in Firefox 3 the address bar functionality has changed. From Firefox Support:

"When you start typing into the Location bar in Firefox 3, the "Smart Location Bar" will try to guess where you are trying to go, based on where you have been - it can help you get back to pages whose web address you only vaguely remember by showing them in the autocomplete drop-down menu."

To do search from there, you have to type searchterm ahead of your query. I'm not into extra typing, myself.
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And yet . . .
MariusSilverwolf 29th Aug 2008
. . . the only affect it has on me is that I will continue to have to track down the Metacrawler search plugin for Firefox on every new installation I perform, and remove Google from the options.

As long as I have the freedom to do so, I'm okay.
0 Votes
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Same for IE or Opera
jred 29th Aug 2008
I don't know the default for Safari, but I have to switch IE from Live to Google.

I like Google being the default for both my main browsers (Opera & FF). It's one instance where the need to prostitute yourself/product doesn't involve too painful a compromise.
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Same approach, different ends
MariusSilverwolf 29th Aug 2008
I switch AWAY from Google instead of to it. Using only one search engine is too limiting for me. By using metacrawler as my search plugin, I'm running a concurrent search on anywhere from 4 to 7 engines simultaneously and tabulating the results, and with no loss in speed. Makes my life easier.
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RE: Google, Mozilla extend search box deal
TunerGeek 29th Aug 2008
The Googlebar v0.9.15.14 add-on is far superior. Sadly, upgrades lag behind browser versions. I really missed my GB after FF went to 3.0. Same after FF2.0, but all is well now.
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Mozilla's Google dependance?
cardinal4 29th Aug 2008
Doesn't anyone feel any kind of reservation against Google's sponsorship? Mozilla is supposed to be a free and neutral browser. With it surviving basically on Google's funding, Firefox has become something of Google's browser. Mozilla would become more inclined to implement Google's "standards" and initiatives rather than other open standards. This could be Google's next bid to control more of the Internet, going right to the browser.
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Not a problem
Greenknight_z 30th Aug 2008
Google wants their products and services to work on all platforms, with all browsers. Thus they naturally support open standards.
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RE: Google, Mozilla extend search box deal
david@... 1st Sep 2008
The Wall St. Journal reported today that Google will be releasing its own Open Source browser, even though it just renewed its agreement with Mozilla.
0 Votes
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RE: Google, Mozilla extend search box deal
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 11th Oct
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