

Mozilla’s new CEO explains his love-hate relationship with Google - abraham
http://venturebeat.com/2010/12/09/mozilla-gary-kovacs-google/

======
haberman
"Google isn’t deliberately lying, he said. However, the company created Chrome
for a business reason, and Kovacs said that purpose is not “to free the world
from any connection to Google.” Instead, the search giant wants to use the
data gathered by Chrome to create a better, more personalized experience in
search and other Google products, he said."

I dunno, I think Google just wants to make sure that the experience of using
the web rocks as hard as it can, because the web is the platform that Google
uses to deliver all of its applications.

The web is competing with proprietary technologies like iOS apps. If the web
is perceived as inferior to iOS apps, then Google is held hostage by the owner
of the proprietary platform (Apple). Apple can and will flex this muscle, as
we saw when the Google Voice app was denied. So it's in Google's interest to
invest into any technology that advances the state of the open web.

If Google just cared about "gathering data," it could save 99% of the work by
just making search toolbars for other browsers that "phone home."

~~~
mbrubeck
I'm a Mozilla engineer, but I tend to agree with haberman's comment. I haven't
seen any sign that Chrome benefits Google web properties any more than the web
in general.

 _"If Google just cared about "gathering data," it could save 99% of the work
by just making search toolbars for other browsers that "phone home."_

...which of course you have done, for a long time. But as far as I know Chrome
has succeeded in gaining more users than the toolbars ever did. So maybe
building a browser _is_ a necessary cost of total world domination. :)

(P.S. Hi Josh!)

------
jemfinch
"Firefox doesn’t need to privilege any particular website or application,
while Google’s Chrome is “tied to their commercial purposes,” he said."

Ironically the Mozilla Foundation's primary (practically sole?) source of
income is derived from the privilege they give Google in their default search
box.

~~~
trotsky
_The effort comes just months after Firefox's creator, Mozilla Corp., killed a
powerful new tool to limit tracking under pressure from an ad-industry
executive, The Wall Street Journal has learned._

[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870458480457564...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704584804575645074178700984.html)

~~~
mbrubeck
That's some very bad reporting from the Wall Street Journal:

 _"Mr. Simeonov reached out to the chief executive of Mozilla, who put him in
touch with Jay Sullivan, vice president of products at Mozilla. The two spoke
on June 9... The software was removed from the Firefox prototype on June 10."_

But in fact the software was removed on June 8, before the conversation
between Sullivan and Simeonov. Here is the Mercurial changeset:
<http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/76e9dd2d9322>

Unfortunately, the WSJ reporter looked at the date of a Bugzilla comment,
rather than the date of the change it was discussing. This was pointed out by
Mozilla security engineer Jesse Ruderman, who provides more details in the
comments here:
[http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/gerv/archives/2010/12/did_we_...](http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/gerv/archives/2010/12/did_we_kill_a_do_not_track_feature.html)

~~~
trotsky
Thanks for clarifying that. The journal series has otherwise been quite
illuminating.

