I know a lot of people in the Green Party here in Germany who deliberately use Firefox because they deem it to be the most politically correct browser. My impression is that a lot of them neither realize that Firefox is indeed primarily sponsored by Google (which they consider evil), nor that Chrome/Chromium is open source, just as Firefox. They prefer Firefox for touchy-feely, not technical reasons.
So there's a market niche for a browser which comes from a sort-of neutral entity, and I think Google recognizes that and that's why they continue to pour money into Mozilla. Mozilla looks like a neutral entity, dedicated to the good, while in fact it's almost a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google.
I don't think you understand their motives.
Yes Mozilla takes money from Google, it does not make Mozilla Google does it? Mozilla has no share holders, no one to report to, and certainly they do not report to Google. Google pays Mozilla for the default Google search page index and if no one would load that page anymore then Mozilla would get no money.
Do you think Google also own every single adsense user then?
Chromium (NOT CHROME) is open source, but it does not fight for freedom or general public interest. It fights for bringing Google even more control and user base. In fact Chrome woulnd't even exist if it wasn't for Mozilla.
THAT is the reason why they still use Firefox.
If Firefox globally falls behind 20% global market share, Mozilla won't have much weight when doing things such as forbidding h264 support, pushing true open standards, etc.
Until and unless I see clear signs of Mozilla behaving at Google's behest, I'm not going to worry.
Google wants strong competition in spaces where they don't make money (in fact this is how all well-run corporations operate)... so throwing some pocket change at one of their "competitors" in the browser space is very good for their business (it keeps other competitors like Microsoft busy).
Google even mentioned (I remember this from 2003 or so) they want competition in their profitable areas (search) since being a monopoly is a) soul-damaging and b) invites government regulation.
There's a little bit of truth to it. As far as I know, Mozilla is not actually directed to do anything by Google in exchange for the money. I'm sure if they had too many missteps that Google would begin reducing their funding, but in general they don't have profit as a driving factor in development and Chrome still does.
For example, it took a very long time for any really effective adblock extension available in Chrome, and (this has likely been fixed) for a while even when it blocked ads it actually still loaded them so the ad producers couldn't tell difference.
It was because of technical limitations in the capabilities of chrome extensions. Considering adblock plus has nearly double the #2 most used firefox extensions, and nearly 6x the number of users as the #3 most use firefox extension, it seems like the design for extensions should almost be done specifically with enabling adblock in mind.
I'm no conspiracy theorist and I use chrome, but it seems to me that at least in the above case, Google put their bottom line as an advertising company above what the users wanted or what made the best browser experience. Not that it is too much of a bad thing, but I think saying that Google has the same kind of control over the direction of Firefox is silly.
I'm sure you could find plenty of charities that are nearly entirely funded by Microsoft's Charity branch or something, and I'm sure those charities don't go around badmouthing Microsoft but they don't exactly take orders from them either.
Wow, people from the Green Party really consider Google evil? I wonder what they would say, were Google not to invest in renewable energy, and in reducing energy consumption * ... I can see how some people might be concerned about privacy, but there are many more companies I would consider evil before Google.
Good point. A lot of Green activists also abhor Apple even though Apple's hardware products are best of breed with regards to avoiding eco-hazardous materials (BFRs, arsenic in glass, etc). Their views are obviously not entirely rational. :-)
So there's a market niche for a browser which comes from a sort-of neutral entity, and I think Google recognizes that and that's why they continue to pour money into Mozilla. Mozilla looks like a neutral entity, dedicated to the good, while in fact it's almost a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google.