Browsing The Future

Mozilla depends on people donating their time and expertise for free. How does a worsening economy and unemployment rate affect your product? The guy who used to code for you brilliantly in his spare time may now be waiting tables.
There are a lot of different possibilities. That's one. In that case, we're going to see fewer contributions from that person. There are also other people who previously had jobs that took all of their time, but now have more time. Earning your living always comes first. But there's a fair amount of satisfaction in [working for Mozilla]—this is hard for people who aren't technically motivated to internalize. But if you're a programmer, it is like being a writer or a dancer; it just has to happen somehow. Especially if you don't have a job that's providing fulfillment in your technical expertise, there is a lot of reward to working on a very smart and demanding community that will respect you, and will give you leadership and authority based on what you do.

We have not been directly affected nearly as much as most other organizations. We don't live in the market. We have no shares; we don't have investors looking for a financial return. Our stakeholders are looking for a "quality of Internet" return. That provides some stability in a time like this.

Most of our revenues come out of ads and search; if ad rates go down, that will affect us indirectly. On the other hand, if people are home more, maybe they'll use the browser more. You can't have a change of this magnitude in the economic system and not be affected, but we don't know exactly what it'll look like yet.

What does Mozilla think about Chrome, Google's browser?
They certainly have resources that dwarf many of ours. Except our community. So I expect we will see a good product out of Google … [But] if Google were to end up with enough market share that it could control both the client, the way human beings interact with the Internet, and all the services that Google offers, then they have control of both ends of the system, and at that point, I think we need to look pretty carefully.

So Google is the biggest source of revenue to Mozilla, and yet could be your biggest competitor.
I think IE will be our biggest competitor for a long time. But in a certain space, for technical mindshare and new ideas, absolutely, [Google's] our biggest competitor. So yes. Although that is probably less unusual in the Valley than in other industries. There's a phrase, "co-opetition"—cooperation, competition: co-opetition. It's a very complex relationship.

Say something nice about Internet Explorer.
[Thirteen-second pause.] Well, I'd say Microsoft has reconstituted Internet Explorer development, and the really abusive days of IE6 seem to be—they're making progress. Can I really not say anything nice? I'm trying. IE4 was a nice product, but that was a long time ago.

© 2009