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Comment by dmingod666 | Hacker News Reader

I don't have specific views on what they've written.. but 90% of donations to Firefox come from Google. The 3 year contract ends in 2023..

If Google decides to not fund it next year it's bad management on FFs part.

Putting all your eggs in one basket is very risky and puts you in a place where you may have an ugly compromises Vs face bad consequences..

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> 90% of donations to Firefox come from Google.

Why? What does Google get from it? How do they justify this expense internally?

Google is the default search engine for official FF binaries.

Oh, but that wouldn't be just a "donation" then..

They pay to be the default search engine. It's just the cherry on top, that as long as Firefox survives, Google can deflect browser-monopoly accusations.

Google is currently facing a search engine monopoly case where their purchase of the default search in other browsers is being used against them.

Being the default search has value. It's why Google pays Apple billions a year for the same thing.

I would think the monopoly deflection is much more valuable to Google than being Firefox's default search engine. 3% marketshare, comprised primarily of, if I had to guess, people who are the most likely userbase of any browser to know how to change their default search engine.

For one side it's an existential question, the other side its just a rounding error..

There is no explicit loss of value for Google, they save money + get more chrome users..

Now if MS comes into play or are already playing in the background, then is a totally different story..

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