Firefox funding under pressure: Mozilla fears for payments for Google search
If the US Department of Justice has its way, Google will soon no longer be allowed to pay for the default search facility.
(Image: David Tran Photo/Shutterstock.com)
Mozilla has spoken out in favor of allowing search engine providers to continue making payments to browser developers. This follows proposals by the US Department of Justice and several state attorneys general to ban such payments as a remedy in the antitrust case against Google. "Ordinary Internet users will suffer the most," said Mozilla President Mark Surman. His company receives payments from Google so that its search engine is preset in Firefox.
The US software company also pays for this service in other browsers. Apple, for example, receives 20 billion US dollars a year so that Safari users can use Google search by default. However, unlike other browser providers, Mozilla is currently dependent on payments from Mountain View. Mozilla therefore feels at a disadvantage compared to its financially strong competitors, who are able to cross-finance their browser. However, the company has recently expanded its business areas to include artificial intelligence and digital advertising in order to secure Firefox funding in the future.
Bing could replace Google as the default search
However, Mozilla currently feels that its existence is threatened by the lawyers' proposals. "The unintended consequence is the transfer of power from one dominant player to another," warns Surman, suggesting that Microsoft could also pay to establish Bing as the default search engine. At the same time, it excludes the smaller challengers that offer their users privacy, he adds, despite Mozilla's market expansion and the changed terms of use for handling user data in Firefox.
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Surman also points out that Mozilla's loss of revenue would also affect the further development of its in-house browser engine Gecko. Gecko is currently one of three central engines. The others are Blink from Google's Chromium project and WebKit from the Safari browser. "If we can no longer develop Gecko further, the open web will be over. Then Chromium will be the only cross-platform browser engine," warns Surman in the Mozilla statement, referring to the switch from Opera and Microsoft Edge to the Chromium engine.
(sfe)
