Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New Search Strategy for Firefox

blog.mozilla.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 352 posts

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#251

Post by jfoster »

cpeterso wrote: post #45
mythmon_ wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is kind of a moot point. If you read the article carefully, you'll notice that Yahoo will be bringing "a new, re-imagined Yahoo search experience to Firefox users in the U.S"

> "a new, re-imagined Yahoo search experience to Firefox users in the U.S" I wonder if or how Yahoo's "re-imagined" search experience will be affected for non-Firefox users. UPDATE: Yahoo's press release says their "clean, modern, and immersive search experience that will launch first to Firefox’s U.S. users in December and then to all Yahoo users in early 2015." http://yahoo.tumblr.com/1313

Interesting that Firefox users get it first. If they're clever (I think they are), that's a tactic to help Mozilla with user acquisition. (assuming the reimagined search experience is something that they can make people want to try)

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#253

Post by joelhaus »

haberman wrote: post #136
bad_user wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every intermediate layer that Google does not control is a risk to their business. Every intermediate layer that Google does control is also an opportunity for lock-in. Which is seriously starting to piss me off, as they are increasingly turning their back on open standards.

As a Googler who cares very much about open standards, I don't think that assessment is fair or accurate.

Agreed. Sometimes I think the people who don't appreciate Google's "openness" are not old enough to remember either the early closed internet platforms (Prodigy/CompuServe/AOL) or the Microsoft products that are only recently getting around to open standards.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#254

Post by discardorama »

throwawaymoz wrote: post #67

(throwaway account) While I believe the party line is probably true ("Mozilla decided not to go with Google"), it's also disingenuous. Mozilla chose not to go with Google because Google wasn't willing to pay what they were before. They straight up told Mozilla this 3 years ago when they signed the billion dollar contract; Mozilla had 3 years to become profitable. That's why they switched focus to FirefoxOS; they thou…

> Mozilla had 3 years to become profitable.

Mozilla is a non-profit. This doesn't make sense. Google was paying $300M/year to Mozilla, and I seriously doubt that Mozilla's expenses would be more than that. Most of the work is done by unpaid coders anyways; they don't need vast teams of sales people selling Mozilla, it sells by itself.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#256

Post by MLR »

s4sharpie wrote: post #2

Looks like a smart move by Yahoo to be the default search for a major browser: google/chrome, bing/ie. This also means that Firefox will likely get some serious support from Yahoo in $$s to build back market share. Question is can they catch Google?

I hadn't thought about it before, but I wonder if Yahoo would be willing to front a Firefox advertising campaign across its portals; similar to how Google used to (stil does?) promote Chrome across its own properties.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#257

Post by fpgeek »

gcp wrote: post #43
AshleysBrain wrote: post #6

Does this mean Yahoo outbid Google for being the new default search? How much is the deal worth? What about outside the US?

Outside the US it's Yandex and Baidu for their respective locales.

Um, there's more to the world outside the US than Russia and China...

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#258

Post by fpgeek »

cwyers wrote: post #161

I can't get at the post, so maybe they answer this, but... in this thread, I'm seeing that it's Yahoo! in the U.S., Yandex in Russia, Baidu in China. That seems to leave... a lot of the globe unspoken for. What's the default search for those places?

I can get at the post and I also couldn't see anything about the default outside of US/Russia/China.

What makes this particularly interesting is the rest of the globe includes some of Firefox's strongest markets. My gut suggests this is obscure because Google will remain the default there, but that's just a guess.

EDIT: My gut seems to be wrong. The Yahoo post on this ( http://yahoo.tumblr.com/1313 ) mentions "the long-term framework we developed with Mozilla for future product integrations and expansion into international markets". I think that means Yahoo will end up being the default outside Russia and China, though the rollout may take some time.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#259

Post by MichaelGG »

ngokevin wrote: post #29
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #13

The real question is did Google stop paying? did Yahoo offer way more? Or did Mozilla want to break out from Google's shadow? Edit: I mean to say did Google decide to end it, or did Mozilla, and why?

There was a strong option in place from Google, but Mozilla decided not to go with them as a global default in order to promote choice.

If Mozilla wanted to promote choice, why not present the user with an option of some sort? I fail to see how picking s default provider counts as "choice".

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#260

Post by neurobro »

discardorama wrote: post #254
throwawaymoz wrote: post #67

(throwaway account) While I believe the party line is probably true ("Mozilla decided not to go with Google"), it's also disingenuous. Mozilla chose not to go with Google because Google wasn't willing to pay what they were before. They straight up told Mozilla this 3 years ago when they signed the billion dollar contract; Mozilla had 3 years to become profitable. That's why they switched focus to FirefoxOS; they thou…

> Mozilla had 3 years to become profitable. Mozilla is a non-profit. This doesn't make sense. Google was paying $300M/year to Mozilla, and I seriously doubt that Mozilla's expenses would be more than that. Most of the work is done by unpaid coders anyways; they don't need vast teams of sales people selling Mozilla, it sells by itself.

Mozilla Corporation is a taxable entity owned by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation. The tax system in the US apparently doesn't take kindly to non-profits funding open-source projects because they "can" be used commercially. e.g. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/open-source-madness

$300 million revenue with ~1,000 employees is about $300,000/employee. Pretty good but no guarantee of profitability.

Post reply on HN