Will Mozilla End Google's Exclusivity?
The deal between Mozilla Firefox and Google has been a lucrative one but this deal has already expired last month. Through this deal coming to an end, many people are asking if this would really be the end of this business partnership.
Both companies are yet to make any specific answer for this question. So far, statements released by both companies have been vague regarding this subject. A spokeswoman for Mozilla Firefox disclosed that both companies are "in active negotiations". She also said in her statement that "Our search relationship with Google remains positive for both of us. We have every confidence that search partnerships will continue to be a strong and growing generator of revenue for the foreseeable future." At the same time, a Google spokesperson also disclosed the same statement saying that "Google can confirm that we still have an agreement with Mozilla, but have nothing new to share at this time."
Google is just one of the search engine partners that Mozilla Firefox has in their Internet browser. Mozilla still has partnership deals with other search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Amazon, Ebay, etc. Despite not being the "exclusive" partner of Mozilla Firefox, Google has contributed greatly with the company's revenues. In Mozilla's financial reports from last years, it indicated that Google accounted for 84% of their revenues. Mozilla Firefox receives revenues from search engines when Firefox users click on the ads that are displayed in the search results page. Rumors about the split-up between the companies started because of two separate events. One of which was when Google launched their own search engine, Google Chrome. Another incident which contributed to these rumors was when Mozilla released a customized version of Firefox with Bing. Presently, Google still remains as the default search engine for Mozilla Firefox browsers.
Mozilla's dominance in the browser market also remains in question as two separate reports have shown different results. According to the research done by StatCounter, Google Chrome was able to grab the top spot from Mozilla Firefox last month. On the other hand, NetApplications revealed that Mozilla Firefox is still at the top spot and Google Chrome is still at the second spot. If this deal with Google would not be renewed, Mozilla Firefox would need to turn to other search engine options like Yahoo or Bing.