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Posted By:
mpilatow
127 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://searchengineland.com)
Category: Water Cooler
23 Comments
Posted By:
mpilatow
127 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://searchengineland.com)
Category: Water Cooler
23 Comments
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Comments
This story is a joke and you should be embarassed for posting it. Comparing Google being the default browser in Firefox to MSN being default in IE is comparing apples to oranges.
Firstly, Microsoft abused it's monopoly position by integrating IE with Windows and shipping it AS THE DEFAULT BROWSER. That's worse then just setting a default search engine ina browser. The act effectively killed Netscape and solidified IE as the default browser of the Web. In the process browser development stagnataed and we we were all left with a boring Internet experience. Luckily Firefox is changing that.
Secondly, the Google being the default in Firefox is no different then someone like Yahooo paying HP to be the default search engine in their browser. Why not give HP crap for their raltionship with Yahoo? Or are you just out to get Google for some reason?
Thirdly, Google's relationship with Firefox is a godsend. The money that relationship brings in allows Mozilla to do great things. Those great things are forcing innovation in a variety of areas particularly in web browser development. I don't want the 1998 Web. I want a modern dynamic and powerful Internet experience.
I also disgaree that MSN/Live is a good search engine. It's losing marketshare for a reason.
I think I have to agree with th previous comment; if Google was the maker of FF, then your analogy would be accurate, but I think in this instance it's a bit off. Thanks for taking a different perspective though- it's a good debate!
"This story is a joke and you should be embarassed for posting it."
LOL
A Firefox add-on named AddtoSearch Bar allows users to add just about ANY search engine or search box to the toolbar with just one click. Again, that's any search engine. Great for verticals. The entire process takes 2-3 clicks and just a few seconds. VERY easy to use.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3682
Sorry to offend your sensibilities but I think the article is valid. I don't agree with MS forcing users to use live search and I don't feel any differently about Firefox forcing Google as the default. The other problem I have with Firefox is the fact that Live Search is not even in the original drop down for search engines. Live search may suck but it is still more important than the Amazon search engine.
I use Firefox exclusively and rarely use Live search but there should be a choice for the users and at the very least Live should be available in the drop down without being forced to add it.
stymiee you are correct when you say that it is incorrect to compare MSN and IE with Google and Firefox. The coexistance of Google and Firefox runs deep enough that you can type a keyword into the browser and you will be directed to the #1 website that is in Google search results for that keyword 90% of the time. Type in a word or a phrase (laptop, cheap laptop, iphone, Danny Sullivan) hit Go and see where you end up. In IE this is not possible.
@Roland I remember selling what you just described, they were called realnames and they were shit hot, Microsoft took away their backing and it got disabled. That was after I had sold over £100,000 worth and made my commision, so it was not too bad. I long for a new realnames, I was just selling words, do you know how easy that is?
Eavesy I remember realnames and if I recall one of the downsides was that it contributed to a bad user experience. It took away the ability of the user to decide which website was best for their particular query and sent them instead to a company that purchased the keyword. With Google, it is tied directly to the #1 position which I believe still takes away choice from the consumer and instead gives Google the power to decide who the best result is.
> Microsoft is a good search engine [citation needed] that searchers should have access to directly from that search bar.
There, that's better. :)
@stymiee: It's hard to give Microsoft crap over HP since Microsoft hasn't been the one running to the courts arguing that consumers need choice. They're not being hypocritical. it is Google that's said search choices should be made by users. They employed that to remove a default option from IE. Then they cut deals with computer makers like Dell to impose themselves as the default choice. it is two-faced at best. Microsoft cutting a deal with HP is simply playing the game Google itself established.
As for your other points, hey -- I love Firefox and use it everyday. But Google has enough money to pay Firefox heaps without also having to demand it be the default. It could instead use its wealth to help support Firefox and the idea of consumer choice that it squawks so much about in areas where it feels threated (and doesn't when it's ahead).
And Live is a good search engine. It's losing marketshare for a variety of reasons. You can count among them the fact that it is locked out of being in front of Firefox users. That's hardly the killer reason, but it contributes. Send comment HTML is disabled
What a waste of time. Pointless because poor little defenseless Microsoft always gives everyone a fair shake, right?
Do you really have nothing better to write about?
It's a $66 million default search engine...why change it.
I don't think anyone pities Microsoft. The article simply discusses the hypocrisy of Google. Google fought to force Microsoft to provide consumer choice when setting the default search engine in IE and then they go ahead and work with Firefox so that Google is the default. On top of that Microsoft is not even in the default search engine drop down, you have to click Manage Search Engines to choose. While Microsoft may not be the biggest search engine it is is bigger than all of the defaults besides Yahoo and Google. I know everyone hates Microsoft and there is good reason for some of that but if Google is going to fight for consumer choice it should apply to them and their partnerships as well.
It is extremely easy to change your search engine, it's also very obvious, there's a little down arrow, what more do you want? Obviously there has to be a default engine of some kind. Anyone who can't figure out that the down arrow would change the search engine would not be able to figure out how to add one if one did not exist by default. I doubt anyone using firefox to begin with would have trouble figuring this out. For everyone else, you can choose your search engine. As one poster already said, apples and oranges.
Whats wrong with Mozilla choosing the best deal? Don't you earn money with your projects?
mpilatow - I think your talking about 'mozilla' not 'firefox. If firefox really was a 'google clone' why would it be blocking tracking and allowing its users to block adverts?
Just a thought
"These programmers are not for sale: The Mozilla Foundation and its for-profit subsidiary, Mozilla Corp., love Google. And Google loves Mozilla so much it provided the organization with $67 million in revenue in 2006 - 85 percent of total revenues.
But all that money and affection haven't kept Mozilla's programmers, many of whom are volunteers, from writing code for Mozilla's popular FireFox browser that blocks Internet ads, or, in the latest version of the browser, lets people keep their search histories out of Google's giant data base.
Firefox 3, which is currently released for developer testing, features a much smarter location bar (the place on the browser where you enter URLS). Like Google's personalized search service, it tracks where you go on the Internet so that you can find things again easily. Unlike Google, it doesn't share this information with anyone, much less a giant, billion-dollar corporation. It keeps it private, on your machine.
Will Google mind? Firefox developers didn't ask for permission, and they don't intend to beg forgiveness, even though Google's contract with Firefox expires in November 2008."
PS: any conspiracies about FLOCK? it forced me to use YAHOO.. recon Jerry Yang is in my PC?:)
I can't actually believe some of the comments we're getting about this being a ridiculous post. I would say its perfectly valid.
I don't mind google being the default or even msn live search not being there. But if there's no way to change your default to a different search engine then thats really annoying for some users. And I would agree that its rather hypocritical of Google to turn a blind eye to what mozilla has done here when they did their very best to stop IE from making live search the default on their browser.
Definately the pot calling the kettle black on this one. Personally I think IE 7 is great... okay so it may have stolen an idea or 30 from the Firefox setup, but it works for me.
But why, oh why won't someone set ask.com as a default search engine? It really is better than Google or MSN.
Danny's right on the money. As to personal attacks, they reflect more on the person making them than on the quality of the article.
I downloaded Firefox 3.0 yesterday and it appears that the developers of Firefox are making a design failure in turning the URL (Location Bar) into a quasi search-engine that attempts to match keywords in the page titles stored in the cache/history. This is very confusing and therefore fails the basic usability test of being non - user-friendly.
If anything at all, they should have created a separate box that users could use to search the page titles stored locally on the user's computer.
The way it works now, if I were to start typing "microsoft" into the location bar all pages with the word "microsoft" in the title field would start showing up -- this is information overload (and it's not really "information", because it's not relevant but rather introduces noise).
Huge failure -- and I would not be at all surprised if Google actually has aspirations to be the company that is responsible for ranking the results in this pseudo-awesome bar.
I may write more about this at http://Gaggle.INFO/News as I become more familiar with this very quirky approach and perhaps figure out more what might have motivated the browser designers to make such a big and blatant mistake
Danny,
You can change your default search engine in Firefox. Click on the "old Google logo" in the Search box, select Manage Search Engines, move Yahoo up, and search away. Yahoo is now your new default search. This also worked in the release candidate.
Heh. Dan, I know I can change the default. The point is that Firefox is setting it for me without asking, because it has a paid deal with Google. But in IE, it doesn't do that because Google fought against Microsoft saying it was all for letting consumers chose.
Google had a point - users don't choose to install Internet Explorer - it's installed by default. Just like users don't choose to install Safari on a Mac... which is where the real hypocrisy lies, because Google isn't just the default search in Safari, changing it isn't even an option when you fire up the browser.
If you want to change the default browser on a Mac in Safari, you can have some fun hacking or install a plug-in to do it ( http://www.usingmac.com/2008/6/18/change-safari-default-search-engine ). You can change the setting on the iPhone version of Safari, but that feature isn't present in the MacOS version.
What you're calling for here is to force users to choose a default search engine when they choose to install Firefox. Firefox doesn't control the desktop operating system - Apple and Microsoft do.