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Mozilla may have some leverage on Google search box contract

By | August 4, 2010, 3:08pm PDT

Mozilla’s Google contract for the Firefox search box is up in 2011 and may have a bit of leverage. Why? Firefox carries a good bit of clout in the search market, according to ad network Chitika.

Dan Ruby, research director at Chitika, crunched some numbers and estimated that Firefox drives 9.18 percent of search impressions across its network. That tally is No. 2 compared to Google, which has 82.45 percent. Bing is No. 3 at 8.56 percent.

Here’s the money shot:

Ruby reckons that Firefox’s default search to Google is quite valuable and it’s possible that Bing would get in on the bidding. What should Mozilla do? In my opinion, Mozilla should just follow the money.

Related: Five things the new Mozilla CEO must do

Mozilla: Still too dependent on Google for revenue; Can it diversify?

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Topics

Google Inc., Mozilla Firefox, Google Search, Mozilla Corp., Web Browsers, Internet, Larry Dignan

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

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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.

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Talkback Most Recent of 9 Talkback(s)

  • better make the most of it now. theyre going to be losing it soon
    with IE9 completely stomping them, chrome eating their lunch on non windows,and heading towards zero mobile share, theyre going to have much less leverage the next time its up.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Johnny Vegas
    4th Aug 2010
  • Mozilla may have some leverage on Google search box contract
    Actually, many Firefox users are average users. They've been told to use Firefox by their friend and most likely use the default search engine. Besides, Bing is fairly competitive with Google.

    www.cluetechnologies.com
    ZDNet Gravatar
    cluetechnologies
    6th Aug 2010
  • LOL! Microsoft would just be wasting more money
    Firefox users aren't mindless drones who use only what's given to them. That's what makes them Firefox users. They use Google because they chose to, not because it appears as the default option when the browser first runs.

    As long as Google remained an option in the Firefox search bar (and it will), absolutely nothing would change. That's because Firefox allows you to switch between search engines via a drop-down list, and, most importantly, it keeps the last one you use as the 'default' until you switch to another one. So, even if Bing were to be displayed by default, the user needs only to select Google in the drop-down list and Google is displayed indefinitely until such time that the user chooses to use another engine. Once the user switches away from Bing, it's game over for Bing because the browser will never switch back to it on its own. Like I said, they'd be wasting their money.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    eMJayy
    4th Aug 2010
  • RE: Mozilla may have some leverage on Google search box contract
    @eMJayy Actually, many Firefox users are average users. They've been told to use Firefox by their friend and most likely use the default search engine. Besides, Bing is fairly competitive with Google.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    day2die
    5th Aug 2010
  • RE: Mozilla may have some leverage on Google search box contract
    @day2die The Adblock addon is more than worth it. When the other browsers offer an equally as good solution then I might switch.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Liliana Pubill
    5th Aug 2010
  • RE: Mozilla may have some leverage on Google search box contract
    @NewGoldDream
    Chrome and Safari both have adblock now, and it works beautifully.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    nix_hed
    5th Aug 2010
  • Gmail and YouTube
    Mozilla should take a bite off Google's arrogance and make a deal with Bing. I've been using Bing now for 3 months, since Google decided to screw up my YouTube access with my Gmail email. Be careful if you post videos in YouTube and you use your Gmail account, the same could happen to you if your YouTube account is closed.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Liliana Pubill
    5th Aug 2010
  • RE: Mozilla may have some leverage on Google search box contract
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    ZDNet Gravatar
    jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812
    11th Oct
  • RE: Mozilla may have some leverage on Google search box contract
    Priceless information and excellent layout you acquired right here! I may perhaps want to thanks for mulberry bag sharing your recommendations and time for you to the stuff you piece of writing!!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770
    11th Oct

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