Re:Apple, Google and a Deal That Controls the Internet
by ehsankia on Sunday October 25, 2020 @08:36PM
(#24891582)
While not as much as Mozilla, most reports saying it's still 10-20% of their profit, which isn't insignificant.
Re:Apple, Google and a Deal That Controls the Internet
by Traster on Monday October 26, 2020 @09:56AM
(#24896182)
It would be an absurd conclusion to reach that Google can't pay Mozilla to feature their search, but can sink billions into Chrome to gain market share.... and feature their search. I don't see a sensible end state though. What do you do? Spin off Chrome, destroy it as a business by preventing it from doing a deal with Google to feature Google search... and then what? Act surprised when web browser development stops dead?
Re:Apple, Google and a Deal That Controls the Internet
by ziml77 on Monday October 26, 2020 @11:09AM
(#24896975)
Wouldn't they just try to get Microsoft to pay instead? I doubt Mozilla cares which search engine they're getting paid to make default as long as they're getting money somehow. And MS hasn't given up on trying to push Bing on people, so I could see them going for a deal like that.
Re:Apple, Google and a Deal That Controls the Internet
by SquareWheel on Monday October 26, 2020 @03:33PM
(#24900281)
It's certainly possible. I suspect if Google drops out though, then the price for Bing being included would go way down. They'd have no big players to bid against. I don't see Yandex or Baidu being interested.
It's also possible Microsoft would exercise caution, considering this suit against Google. They may want to sidestep any deals that could paint a target on their back in the future.
If Google is compelled to stop making search deals, Mozilla loses 90% of their income. They just laid off tons of staff. How many more will they be forced to cut?
Apple I suspect will be just fine. But this isn't good news at all on the browser monoculture front.