Chrome browser the (eventual) death of Firefox

I don't buy the notion that Chrome is a major competitor to Internet Explorer. The people who use IE are generally either forbidden from using anything else by their employers or are mainstream users who either find that IE -- which came pre-installed on their PC -- works well enough or simply aren't aware that alternative browsers exist.

I think Chrome could end up grinding the life out of Firefox, though.

Cnet points to a blog post from Mozilla's CEO who tries to whistle past the graveyard, but I thought the critical point from Cnet was this financial tidbit:

Mozilla and Google have had a long and very fruitful relationship. Google is the default search engine on the Mozilla Firefox browser, and the company pays Mozilla large sums for the privilege: $56 million of the $66 million that Mozilla Corp. made in 2006.

That financial arrangement expires in 2011, and I don't see any reason for Google to extend it beyond that point, assuming Chrome isn't a total flop.

If Google does cut its ties with Mozilla, it's hard to see Firefox surviving for long unless Mozilla comes up with a radically different business model.

Mozilla CEO: Chrome was inevitable

Mozilla CEO John Lilly on Tuesday waxed philosophical about the release of Google's new Web browser, Chrome, despite it signaling an attempt by the search giant--and Mozilla's major financier--to become its biggest competitor.

"It should come as no real surprise that Google has done something here: their business is the Web, and they've got clear opinions on how things should be," Lilly wrote in his blog Tuesday. "Chrome will be a browser optimized for the things that they see as important."

Mozilla CEO John Lilly

The beta version of Chrome, to be available later Tuesday for Windows systems, is an obvious alternative to Firefox for those Web surfers fed up with Microsoft's long-reigning Internet Explorer browser.

Mozilla and Google have had a long and very fruitful relationship. Google is the default search engine on the Mozilla Firefox browser, and the company pays Mozilla large sums for the privilege: $56 million of the $66 million that Mozilla Corp. made in 2006.

But Lilly, writing in his blog, said he welcomed the competition posed by Google. Lilly said Mozilla would continue its financial relationship with Google until 2011 and would continue to work with the search giant on technical collaborations such as crash reports system Breakpad.
Paul Kim, vice president of marketing for Mozilla, said that Google staff would be allowed to continue to contribute to the Mozilla Foundation's projects. "As a 100 percent open-source project, we welcome contributions to Firefox from everyone," he said.

"More smart people thinking about ways to make the Web good for normal human beings is good, absolutely," Lilly said.

"Competition often results in innovation of one sort or another: in the browser you can see that this is true in spades this year, with huge JavaScript performance increases, security process advances, and user interface breakthroughs. I'd expect that to continue now that Google has thrown their hat in the ring."