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Comment by endofreach | Hacker News Reader

> The minute Mozilla starts being relevant in search, Google will cut their billions USD/year sponsorship, killing Mozilla in the process. The incentives are not there.

Google needs mozilla more than anyone. It would be a big win for the web if google stopped financing mozilla and had to deal with the consequences.

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Why does Google need Mozilla at this point? Firefox has 2.6% market share. Sure, I imagine the cost/benefit ratio is slightly positive for Google, but Mozilla needs Google since that's the majority of their revenue; the reverse is definitely not true.

It’s an anti-competitive ploy run by Google so they can point to Firefox and say “look there are competitors we’re not the only browser.”

Mozilla is like the legit side business the Mafia uses for taxes, group health benefits, etc. and to give an air of legitimacy to their operation.

Google needs Mozilla to exist to prove on paper they don't hold a monopoly with Chrome.

Safari and Edge have larger market shares, they don't need Firefox for that.

Edge is based off of chrome. Safari isn't a browser outside of Apple computers.

IMO the value is more about market share of the browser than the engine.

Wow, that little? I LOVE Firefox. I guess that market share should either make me feel real good, or quite lonely...

As likeabatterycar said, it's about avoiding anti trust / monopoly issues. Just imagine mozilla died and google had to cut lose chrome. That would really be interesting.

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