Mozilla Contemplates a Future Without Google

An anonymous reader points out a story at Business Week which begins: "Mozilla Chair Mitchell Baker says the Chrome browser is making the foundation behind Firefox rethink its reliance on revenues from Google. Since Google introduced its own Web browser, Chrome, the prospect that Google may not re-up the three-year contract set to expire in 2011 has Mozilla considering other search partnerships and ways to generate revenue, Baker said. 'There are probably other search engines that would pay us more money,' Baker says. Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN, Google's two main search rivals, come to mind, but Baker says smaller search engines wouldn't be discounted should such a situation arise. One player Baker won't identify 'offered a blank check to replace Google,' she says. Set to launch on certain Nokia phones in late spring, Fennec is the first Mozilla browser optimized for mobile platforms. If it gains traction with enough handset makers and mobile users, Fennec could represent another way to draw revenue from a partnering search engine."

MSN? Not bloody likely

[rxmd]

'There are probably other search engines that would pay us more money,' Baker says. Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN, Google's two main search rivals, come to mind

Well, MSN doesn't really come at least to my mind when I think of a search engine that could sponsor Firefox development.

Re:Google Won't Let this Happen

[caffeinejolt]

Agreed. This graph pretty much summarizes why dropping their Mozilla relationship would be incredibly stupid on Google's part. [statowl.com]

Some contrary statistics

[Mostly a lurker]

Your page was from 2007 (and highly suspicious anyway). Let's try a 2008 page [searchengineland.com] and a couple of 2009 [searchenginewatch.com] sites [searchenginewatch.com].

Re:Linux fork

[bunratty]

IceWeasel isn't a fork of Firefox. It's a version of Firefox that's been rebranded so that it doesn't have the trademark and copyright issues that Firefox has.

Re:Carte blanche?

[despisethesun]

Must be recent, because I updated Java on a machine earlier this week and it still asked about the Yahoo toolbar.

Re:Some contrary statistics

[pseudonomous]

The GP wasn't talking about market-share, the GP was talking about reported user satisfaction, which isn't neccessarily linked to market-share.

Re:Linux fork

[just_another_sean]

IceWeasel isn't a fork of Firefox. It's a version of Firefox that's been rebranded so that it doesn't have the trademark and copyright issues that Firefox has.

And I thought the whole point of doing so was so Debian could make changes to the code (i.e. bug fixes) without waiting for the "go ahead" from the Mozilla Foundation. Sounds like a fork to me...

Understanding that Wikipedia isn't always the best source I will still go ahead and quote:

In 2006, a branding issue developed when Mike Connor, representing the Mozilla Corporation, requested that the Debian Project comply with Mozilla standards for use of the Thunderbird trademark when redistributing the Thunderbird software.[1][2] At issue were modifications not approved by the Mozilla Foundation, when the name for the software remained the same.
from Wiki article on Iceweasel [wikipedia.org]

And, pointed out below [slashdot.org], it's now called IceCat. Wikipedia says this about IceCat [wikipedia.org]...

GNU IceCat, formerly known as GNU IceWeasel,[2] is a web browser distributed by the GNU Project. IceCat, which is made entirely of free software, is a fork of Mozilla Firefox.

emphasis mine

Not Microsoft

[dakirw]

According to the article:

One player Baker won't identify "offered a blank check to replace Google," she says. She notes it wasn't Microsoft.