Mozilla’s Devilish Deal With Google
Two aspects of Mozilla’s close ties with Google over development
of the Firefox browser have Chris Soghoian concerned about a
conflict of interest in play.
People who adopt Firefox as a replacement for Microsoft’s
Internet Explorer think they are turning aside a monopolist
in favor of a more secure and open browsing alternative. It
may not be as open as we think.
I missed a little bit of semantic nuance back in May, when
Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler commented on my speculation that Mozilla
could be pressured via Google by a company like Verizon. As Asa
commented, and I’ve emphasized in bold:
“Can Google (or any one, for that matter) effectively pressure
Mozilla to change course on a Mozilla Labs project that they’re
not directly involved with? Absolutely not.”
Many cheap web hosting companies are offering a free web development software as well as website design templates to make up for the absence of dedicated servers.
Now look at the context Soghoian brings to the Mozilla and Google
topic, and how Dotzler’s choice of words appear to fit five months
later.
By David A. Utter
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