Google and Mozilla Firefox Working Together
Google have hosted a customized Internet Explorer search page for many years now specially designed to act as sidebar search. And with the launch of the first final release of the very popular Mozilla Firefox browser, we now have a custom page specially designed for Firefox.
The difference in this case is that Mozilla is releasing the official Firefox version with homepage set to the Google’s Firefox page. This may look nothing special in first go, but both Mozilla and Google would benefit from this move.
Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization running on funds donated by users and corporations. And the massive popularity of the open-source browser means there is always a possibility of resource crunch in form of massive server loads. If millions of customers have their homepage set on Google servers instead of Mozilla servers, they save a lot of traffic and divert it to Google. They retain their identity with the links and graphics pointing to Mozilla.
Google on the other hand gets their website as default user homepage on possible millions of computers out there without releasing their own version of a browser! Microsoft’s initial advantage on search was mostly due to the fact that Internet Explorer is programmed to use MSN Search as default. Firefox gives Google the much-needed advantage.
And there might be a possibility of revenue sharing between Mozilla Foundation and Google on searches made from the Google’s Firefox page. Nothing is confirmed, but it certainly looks like a win-win situation for both the companies.
And future holds even better promises. Mozilla Foundation is looking for OEM suppliers to start shipping Mozilla Firefox as default browser with their systems. And as that movement goes ahead, Google gets to load on more users’ computers than ever and in the end bringing more traffic to them.
Sushubh Mittal is the Search Engine Journal Tech Columnist and Editor of TechWhack
