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Comment by 0xmohit | Hacker News Reader

But Mozilla trusts Google more than any search engine provider. That would be the only explanation for Google being the default search engine.

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A giant pile of cash is a pretty compelling reason to set Google as the default. I don't think trust has anything to do with it.

Mozilla trusts google to pay them.

well... yeah

the bills don't pay themselves you know

Mine do. Direct debit for those companies I trust, scheduled payments for those I don’t. Welcome to the 21st century where the coffee is great and financial automation is a thing.

I'm not sure I understand what you wrote nor why you're getting downvoted, can you expand?

Which part?

> But Mozilla trusts Google more than any search engine provider. That would be the only explanation for Google being the default search engine.

The real explanation doesn't have anything to do with trust: Google pays Mozilla a lot of money to be the default search engine on Firefox. Deals like that are Mozilla's main source of revenue.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/googles-back-its-firefoxs-defa...

I'm less concerned about the search engine than I am about tracking from within the browser. Feel free to mock me for that if you disagree.

The browser may not be tracking you, but it does default to a search engine that tracks and profiles you. It can't get any worse.

Please don't challenge Google in that way.

Sure it can! Google could be the only option in Firefox. But that's not the case. In any case, the vast majority of users simply do not care and will happily use whatever is given to them. The people that do care have the ability to change the defaults.

I'm not really sure why you're viewing this as the end of the world, especially since all the money that Google pays to Mozilla enables the development of Firefox in the first place.

What else are you gonna use? lynx?

Google just pays the most, I think that's where most of Firefox's income comes from.

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