Mozilla Contemplates a Future Without Google

(page 2 of 2)

"We have been offered a blank check to replace Google," says Mozilla's Mitchell Baker

Story Tools

• post a comment
• e-mail this story
• print this story
• order a reprint
• suggest a story
• digg this
• save to del.icio.us

She says keeping Mozilla's commitment to the needs of its users and its development community is a higher priority than cashing in on its potential as a promotional vehicle.

Search partners are just one of several options for Mozilla to generate revenue in the future, Baker adds. "It's not hard to monetize the browser," she says. "There have been more opportunities for money than people think." She's mum on what these may be, but two of Mozilla's coming projects may offer clues.

Set to launch on certain Nokia (NOK) 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. Of course, Google's Chrome has a head start in mobile search: The mobile browser began shipping on T-Mobile handsets in October.

Plug-Ins Could Be Lucrative

Currently in beta testing, Weave is an online service Mozilla designed to help users synchronize their personal information, passwords, and browsing history as they move from one device to the next—as well as provide greater control over how Web sites such as social networks can collect the data and share it with others. Weave will be free to users and Baker says Mozilla won't field a more robust, paid version.

Finally, Mozilla could attempt to profit from the growing use of third-party applications known as plug-ins, which are made available to users who download Web browsers. For example, someone who downloads Firefox might be prompted with a list of featured widgets that can be added to the browser. "There are a lot of companies willing to pay money to get their various wares promoted and distributed," Battelle says. "That economy is real." Baker says Mozilla will "resist" relying on plug-ins, noting that users tend not to like "buttons."

To be sure, Baker believes the most likely future for Mozilla is a continued partnership with Google. She believes that by ending its deal with Firefox, the search giant would cut itself off from the only viable challenger to Microsoft's browser for the foreseeable future. After all, Chrome only recently passed 1% in share of browser use.

Google also pledges loyalty to the partnership. "Obviously we are now in the browser space but we remain great supporters of Firefox," says Google spokesman Eitan Bencuya. "It was Mozilla that kicked off most of the innovation we have seen in browsers over the last few years."

Douglas MacMillan is a staff writer for BusinessWeek in New York.