In the past two years, Google's Chrome browser has made remarkable strides against Firefox and the rest of the the browser field.
Chrome's share of the market has gone from 5% to 18%, according to Net Market Share, and Firefox's share has dropped from 25% to 22%. Remarkably, Internet Explorer still has 52% of the market, though that's down from 62% two years ago. Apple's Safari is stuck at an irrelevant 5%. If nothing changes, Chrome will soon vault ahead of Firefox.
But, as Ed Bott observes over at ZDnet, something big may already have changed. Specifically, Mozilla, which makes Firefox, may have had its oxygen supply cut off.
The Mozilla Org is funded almost entirely by a toolbar deal with Google. The little Google search window you see at the top right corner of your Firefox browser is a paid product placement: For the past several years, Google has paid Mozilla something on the order of $1 per copy to have that window there. Last year, that Google search window accounted for 84% of Mozilla's $123 million of revenue, or about $100 million.
The Google-Mozilla search deal ended in November. There has been no update about whether it has been renegotiated.
Ed Bott asked Mozilla about the status of the deal, and Mozilla hemmed and hawed. Specifically, Mozilla referred him to a 2009 announcement saying that Mozilla believes that "search providers will remain a solid generator of revenue for the foreseeable future." When Bott pressed them about the Google deal, Mozilla said, "we currently do not have an update to share". They said "if you're Google, and you're trying to build Chrome into the world's leading browser, and you have the ability to pretty much put one of your two biggest competitors out of business by pulling the plug on their funding, you might do that, right?"
Yes, it's safe to say that you might. So, will anyone else step in to save Firefox to hold off Chrome?
Well, Microsoft certainly might. And as Microsoft is not just trying to keep Internet Explorer relevant, but is also trying to build a Google-killing search business, one would expect Microsoft to step in. But it's December 4th, and we still haven't heard anything. So, what's going on with Mozilla--and, thereby, Firefox?
Ed Bott predicted earlier this year that Firefox is toast. Even if Microsoft does step in and save Mozilla for another year or two (or Google renews its own deal and keeps Firefox alive), the writing does seem to be on the wall. Based on the trends of the past two years, the browser wars will soon be between Microsoft and Google. And then, beyond that, it will be interesting to see whether Facebook, Amazon, or Apple make a truly serious push.
But, as Ed Bott observes over at ZDnet, something big may already have changed. Specifically, Mozilla, which makes Firefox, may have had its oxygen supply cut off.
The Mozilla Org is funded almost entirely by a toolbar deal with Google. The little Google search window you see at the top right corner of your Firefox browser is a paid product placement: For the past several years, Google has paid Mozilla something on the order of $1 per copy to have that window there. Last year, that Google search window accounted for 84% of Mozilla's $123 million of revenue, or about $100 million.
The Google-Mozilla search deal ended in November. There has been no update about whether it has been renegotiated.
Ed Bott asked Mozilla about the status of the deal, and Mozilla hemmed and hawed. Specifically, Mozilla referred him to a 2009 announcement saying that Mozilla believes that "search providers will remain a solid generator of revenue for the foreseeable future." When Bott pressed them about the Google deal, Mozilla said, "we currently do not have an update to share". They said "if you're Google, and you're trying to build Chrome into the world's leading browser, and you have the ability to pretty much put one of your two biggest competitors out of business by pulling the plug on their funding, you might do that, right?"
Yes, it's safe to say that you might. So, will anyone else step in to save Firefox to hold off Chrome?
Well, Microsoft certainly might. And as Microsoft is not just trying to keep Internet Explorer relevant, but is also trying to build a Google-killing search business, one would expect Microsoft to step in. But it's December 4th, and we still haven't heard anything. So, what's going on with Mozilla--and, thereby, Firefox?
Ed Bott predicted earlier this year that Firefox is toast. Even if Microsoft does step in and save Mozilla for another year or two (or Google renews its own deal and keeps Firefox alive), the writing does seem to be on the wall. Based on the trends of the past two years, the browser wars will soon be between Microsoft and Google. And then, beyond that, it will be interesting to see whether Facebook, Amazon, or Apple make a truly serious push.
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