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Why Google Supports Mozilla Foundation

With the announcement of a second Mozilla developer joining Google, rumors are now afoot about a possible Google browser. However what some are failing to notice are reasons why Google is benefiting from Mozilla right now. Two examples:
1. The default start page for Mozilla FireFox is at Google with a prominent Google search box.
2. Firefox comes with a built in search box to the right of the URL box which leads to … Google!

In other words, Google is already making money from supporting Mozilla and hiring Mozilla developers is just part of that overall support strategy similar to other companies supporting Mozilla. For example, hypothetically speaking let’s assume the salaries of the two Mozilla developers are $100,000 x 2 = $200,000. Now Firefox has been downloaded over 20,000,000 times. Assuming that Google made at least one cent per each copy downloaded from the ad results and you already got $20 million dollars – a 90% profit on the salaries (of course that’s assuming every person who downloaded Firefox clicked on at least one ad). So it makes perfect business sense for Google to help Mozilla since that steers users away from the competing search engines and brings in revenue.

Additionally let’s keep in mind that Google’s web based apps such as Gmail are so advancely coded in Javascript that a browser developer would also be helpful.

Tags: firefox, google, mozilla —

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