The little browser that could is at a crossroads. Chrome is getting a lot of pub. We have the browser, and soon we’ll get the OS. Meanwhile, Mozilla’s deal with Google is up this year. On one hand, Google’s deal funds a lot of Mozilla. Google has long maintained that the open-standard thing is good for everyone, and that’s true. Closed browser ecosystems lead to stagnation. (Hello, Internet Explorer.) What you now have is Google supporting Firefox at the same time they are competing with it with Chrome. But Google is all about contradictions, so it makes sense. Like Larry and Sergey once said, “Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.”
Firefox rewrote the browser rules. Now it’s time to see what they have up their sleeve. Opera is making some noise, but those crazy Norwegians will never have enough market share to move the dial. It’s a European thing. Safari? It’s default with the Mac of course, but the current Mac market share makes world domination problematic. Nope, the browser battle is IE-Firefox-Chrome. Microsoft and Google money versus Mozilla’s spunky innovation.
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