Google Dev: We Are Making Chrome Out of Kindness to Web
There has been plenty of speculation about Google's motivation to guarantee Mozilla nearly $1 billion in a 3-year advertising contract that covers the search box in Firefox.
The obvious idea behind this move is Google's interest in capturing those advertising revenues generated by Mozilla's 25 percent browser market share and users who are using the box for Google searches. Some rumors suggest that the price for Firefox went up as Microsoft was bidding for the space as well and Google certainly has no interest to handing those search revenues to Bing.
The problem, of course, is Firefox is a rival for Chrome is this respect as it is cheaper for Google to harvest search revenues through Chrome than pay Mozilla. As long as Mozilla has substantial market share that makes economic sense for Google, there is no reason to believe why Google would be dropping Mozilla. However, Chrome developer Peter Kasting does not quite agree and complained that people do not understand why Google is developing Chrome and why Google is supporting Firefox. According to Kasting, Chrome is much more Google's donation to the world, a welfare project if you will, than a tool that generates revenues.
Kasting argues that "the primary goal of Chrome is to make the web advance as much and as quickly as possible. That's it. It's completely irrelevant to this goal whether Chrome actually gains tons of users or whether instead the web advances because the other browser vendors step up their game and produce far better browsers. Either way the web gets better. Job done. The end."
To continue that thought, Mozilla also aims to make the web better. And since Chrome "cannot be all things to all people", Google needs to fund Mozilla as Firefox "is an important product because it can be a different product with different design decisions and serve different users well." Kasting concludes his thoughts with the notion that "Google succeeds (and makes money) when the web succeeds and people use it more to do everything they need to do." One may wonder where all the advertising business fits into this argument, as Chrome is actually tied directly to advertising via its instant-search engine supported via the location bar.
For some perspective, there is a balancing post from Firefox product manager Asa Dotzler, who has not been especially kind to Google's intention to build walls around its interests in the web in the past. According to Dotzler, the deal between Mozilla and Google has, of course, to do with selling ads: "This is Google's business," he writes. "They sell ads alongside 'free' content, and they buy additional traffic to make those ads more valuable." Contrary to Kasting's web welfare claims to make the web better, Dotzler says that "Google is not a philanthropist 'donating' money to Mozilla or any other traffic acquisition partner."
In the greater view, the deal makes sense for both parties and Mozilla has clearly come out on top, but the Firefox guys have a rough year ahead to make the money work. Despite Kasting's thoughts that Mozilla is simply an extension of Google's intent to make the web better, there may be more interest for Google to keep Mozilla alive and well down the road. The company is already under fire for unfair monopolization of web apps and advertising and the last thing Google needs is an antitrust suit that it killed Firefox in the browser race. Funding it with $1 billion may help avoid such a suit.
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Indeed.
1997: IE 4: DHTML & close to full CSS 2 & HTML 4
1998: IE 5: AJAX - better CSS/HTML
2001: IE 6: a little better
2006: IE 7: A little better
2009: IE 8: A little better
2011: IE 9: HTML 5, SVG, Performance, Full www compatibility...
In 10 years, between 1998 and 2009, Microsoft barely worked on IE.
It's only after other browsers catch up that they finally went back on it.
google developing chrome it out of kindness to the web? what bullshit!
google does, has always done and will always do everything for its own welfare. they're developing chrome for -
better data mining,
more ad revenues,
gateway software to google's own ecosystem (e.g. gmail, google earth, google+, chrome os etc),
above all, MONEY, POWER and consequently....WORLD DOMINAAAAAAAYSHUN (aka future skynet/matrix/facebook).
the bit about mozilla and anti trust is right. google should keep injecting money into mozilla and i can enjoy using firefox.
google developing chrome it out of kindness to the web?
That's like saying banks lend us money out of the goodness of their hearts.
Google is a business. It runs on profit motive. It's run by the same greedy bastards that run the banks, labor unions, and our governments.
I'm cool with Google taking over the world I like quite like Chrome. Thanks Google!
We all need an overload and we vote more with our browser choice then our wallets these days! Well with google wallet it's all the same thing.. And android... Well I'm getting ahead of myself... But if I have to pick an overload it's google for now. May change my mind when facebook branches out a bit.
I am not naive but some are missing the point, Google does a lot of what it does to make money and I believe there is likely some truth to the statement that they develop Chrome to better the internet. Yeah I can buy that, IE and Firefox need another browser to keep them on their toes. And Chrome has done that job very well. But of course the end result of all of this will likely lead to more profits. It like the truth wrapped up in a white lie. It isnt really a lie, but kudos for them to say the truth and it lead to what they also want.
dstigue: a web browser designed by facebook. omg. dear god no.
Killing off IE6 would be kindness to the web.
"google developing chrome it out of kindness to the web"
My eyes are filled with tears.... Google defines humanity. All hail Google! Long live Google!
/s
"out of kindness to the web"
Yeah, anyone wants to buy a used Bridge ?
Google has never asked me for money. I don't pay to use their browser. Sometimes I dabble in AdSense, but my taxes aren't paying their salaries. Who gets paid with my taxes? Oh, that's right, elected officials. If anything, Google has made more progress toward revolutionizing the internet than our respective governments have done at ameliorating our social and economic predicaments. Until Goggle betrays my trust, I'll continue to applaud them for their "humanitarian" efforts.
What the hell is wrong with the grammar and some of the language in here? Doesn't sound like "the authority on tech" material.
Until Goggle betrays my trust, I'll continue to applaud them for their "humanitarian" efforts.
You are totally blind if you believe they haven't already done this many times.
Google are about one thing and one thing only, profit.
As soon as fools like you get it through their thick heads that google isn't a search or mapping or mail company and are actually just an advertising corporation the sooner you'll see how they do NOTHING if it doesn't directly lead them to more profits.
Google is an advertiser, none of its 'free' products are designed to do anything more than drive advertising traffic.
What the hell is wrong with the grammar and some of the language in here? Doesn't sound like "the authority on tech" material.
who cares....
any chance we can see intel do this for AMD?
Chrome has been great for the web though. Just look at how much it pushes innovation not just it's own but Mozilla's and Microsoft's too. We'd probably still be on Firefox 3.6 and IE 8 if not for Chrome forcing the competition. Especially on the UI front. Try and picture what IE or FF would look like today without having Chrome around.
Chrome has been great for the web though. Just look at how much it pushes innovation not just it's own but Mozilla's and Microsoft's too. We'd probably still be on Firefox 3.6 and IE 8 if not for Chrome forcing the competition. Especially on the UI front. Try and picture what IE or FF would look like today without having Chrome around.
Actually, what they all do is wait for Opera to create the newest thing that people want, and copy it. So, sorry, it's not Chrome that's pushing the market, it's Opera.
To me, it is clear that Google developed Chrome because they were not sure browsers at the time would have the performance needed for their Cloud strategy (Google docs mostly at the time). So they started to work on it.
The chrome books also enter into this idea of a browser that should make you think an off-line Windows environment as an old fashion concept.
In that direction, they have innovated many things (speed most notably). Since both Firefox and Chrome are open source, and a good browser is a means to an end, I do believe Kasting that any browser that delivers Chrome's features is good enough for Google (does not have to be THE CHROME browser). But I don't think Google's actions in this regard are a donation.
I refuse to use Chrome because Google includes it with other installers like malware, and advertise it like hell (no wonder why they have a bunch of market share, and plenty of people who use it likely don't know how they got it). These are both things that Firefox doesn't do. Therefore, I'm sticking with firefox (it also has better addons, who cares if it's a tad slower).
Maybe they could make a 64-bit browser...out of kindness, of course.
Yeah and they datamine your web activity out of kindness too...
Indeed.1997: IE 4: DHTML & close to full CSS 2 & HTML 41998: IE 5: AJAX - better CSS/HTML2001: IE 6: a little better2006: IE 7: A little better2009: IE 8: A little better2011: IE 9: HTML 5, SVG, Performance, Full www compatibility...In 10 years, between 1998 and 2009, Microsoft barely worked on IE.It's only after other browsers catch up that they finally went back on it.
catch up?
The moment that Firefox came out the only reason the home user should never use Internet Explorer was in case something doesn't work in Firefox, and from my memory, there wasn't much that didn't work in Firefox ever… I think the one thing that actually work better Internet explorer than Firefox was flash, that just might be I was always tab Hedy and opening one instance of Internet Explorer verses a 50 tabs Firefox was a big difference.
You are totally blind if you believe they haven't already done this many times.Google are about one thing and one thing only, profit.As soon as fools like you get it through their thick heads that google isn't a search or mapping or mail company and are actually just an advertising corporation the sooner you'll see how they do NOTHING if it doesn't directly lead them to more profits.Google is an advertiser, none of its 'free' products are designed to do anything more than drive advertising traffic.
And your point being?
They make money by showing me a small lad on the right-hand side whenever I do a search, the first two links are as and they are clearly labeled with a different color, Gmail looks for buzzwords and puts a small ticker on it.
only people really give a crap? calipers are being advertised to at most one don't give a crap, they might care about spam mail but Google doesn't do that to my knowledge. Tell me the evils of Google by giving me free products by putting a small advertisement in, then show me Microsoft's price on these products Google offers free. Last time I looked up Microsoft Office with over $300, granted that was years ago, but the point stands, if Google develops their document software and actually compete with Microsoft on a even playing field what I'd rather use, the person who makes me pay $300 for the software, or Google who currently has no advertisements at all their documents, and is still giving it away for free.
Chrome has been great for the web though. Just look at how much it pushes innovation not just it's own but Mozilla's and Microsoft's too. We'd probably still be on Firefox 3.6 and IE 8 if not for Chrome forcing the competition. Especially on the UI front. Try and picture what IE or FF would look like today without having Chrome around.
I have to get extensions to make Firefox look like it used to. I despise the minimalist look.for chrome it works but everyone is trying to copy that looks that I hate so much.
If I want my browser to be minimalist I get an extension for that.
Maybe they could make a 64-bit browser...out of kindness, of course.
they don't really need to, each chrome browser has its own instance, the reason for 64-bit is mostly a RAM thing, and they never really are a push RAM to limit unless they bring every chrome browser together one place
currently there are 25 different instances in my task manager of chrome right now if they brought all that together yeah they would need to go 64-bit
For anyone who wants to make Firefox 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... look like 3.x, head over to http://fastestfox.wordpress.com/ There are some excellent tips there. I wish Firefox change their color patterns. The gray one looks so old now.
I could see Chrome as a non profit adventure by google... they do alot of those beta projects that dont really work out... Chrome and gmail are 2 that did..
I use Opera ... go Opera gooo!!!
any comments?