Mozilla's Endless Attempt To Be Independent

Summary

The video discusses Google's reliance on Apple, fearing the potential of Apple creating its own search engine, which could default on all Apple devices. It also touches on Google's concern over Mozilla's independence, fearing a monopoly discussion if Firefox fails. Mozilla's attempts to diversify and become self-sufficient are explored, including its various products like Firefox Relay, Monitor, and VPN, which often enter saturated markets late. The video also reflects on Mozilla's discontinued projects and suggests areas where the company could focus to regain independence and market presence.

Takeaways

• 😨 Google pays Apple billions to remain the default search engine on Apple devices, fearing the impact if Apple were to create its own search engine.
• 📱 Apple users, known for their brand loyalty, would likely adopt an Apple search engine, which could significantly affect Google's market share.
• 🤔 The relationship between Google and Mozilla is complex, with Google not wanting to see Firefox fail due to potential antitrust implications.
• 🚀 Mozilla has a history of trying to diversify and become less reliant on Google's funding, aiming for greater independence.
• 📉 Mozilla's attempts to enter new markets often result in late entries into saturated markets, which may hinder their success.
• 🔒 Products like Firefox Relay and Mozilla VPN face stiff competition and have had limited availability or adoption issues.
• 💡 Mozilla has experimented with innovative ideas, some ahead of their time, like Ubiquity and Mozilla Prism, which didn't gain traction but could have potential in today's market.
• 📱 Mozilla's past projects, such as Firefox OS and Firefox Lockwise, were discontinued despite the growing popularity of their respective categories.
• 🌐 Mozilla's efforts to innovate in areas like AI and privacy-focused advertising are commendable but face an uphill battle against industry giants.
• 💰 Mozilla's financial reliance on Google has led to a struggle for independence, with most of its funding coming from a single source.

Q & A

Why is Google said to be terrified of Apple in the context of the script?

Google is said to be terrified of Apple because of the potential threat Apple could pose if it were to create its own search engine, which would likely become the default on all Apple devices, potentially diverting a significant portion of Google's search traffic.

What is the significance of Google paying billions to Apple annually?

Google pays Apple billions of dollars annually as a form of default search engine fee, which is essentially seen as a 'bribe' to ensure Google remains the default search engine on Apple devices, highlighting the importance of this partnership for Google's business.

Why does the script mention that Google is not terrified of Mozilla but rather of the government?

The script suggests that Google's concern with Mozilla is not out of fear of competition, but rather because Mozilla's potential collapse could lead to increased scrutiny and calls for regulatory action against Google, including possible breakups.

What is Mozilla's relationship with Google, as discussed in the script?

Mozilla has a complex relationship with Google, largely because a significant portion of Mozilla's funding comes from Google. This financial dependency has led to Mozilla being seen as more of a Google subsidiary than an independent organization.

What are some of the challenges Mozilla faces when trying to branch out into new markets, according to the script?

Mozilla faces challenges such as entering saturated markets too late and failing to gain significant market share or popularity. Their products often do not differentiate enough or arrive after similar services are already well-established.

What is the purpose of Firefox Relay, and how does it compare to existing services in the market?

Firefox Relay is a service that masks users' real email addresses, providing privacy. However, it faces competition from other established services like ProtonPass and VPN services that offer similar functionalities.

What was the original name of Mozilla Monitor, and what does it do?

Mozilla Monitor was originally called Firefox Monitor. It is a service that alerts users if their personal information has been part of a data breach, using the Have I been pwned database.

How does Mozilla VPN differ from other VPN services in the market?

Mozilla VPN is not an independent service but a reseller of Mullvad VPN. It faces challenges such as limited availability in many countries and a saturated market with many competitors offering more features.

What is MDN Plus, and how does it differ from the standard MDN web docs?

MDN Plus is a subscription service that offers additional features on top of the standard MDN web docs, such as offline documentation access, AI-generated code and documentation, and a development playground.

What is the script's perspective on Mozilla's history of entering markets and the success of its products?

The script suggests that Mozilla has a history of either entering markets too late or discontinuing projects prematurely. It highlights several products that were discontinued or failed to gain significant traction despite their potential.

What does the script suggest about Mozilla's future and its potential for independence?

The script expresses a desire for Mozilla to find a successful, sustainable product that can help it become an independent company again, either in an underserved market or by offering a unique value proposition in a saturated market.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Google's Dependency on Apple and Mozilla's Struggles

The paragraph discusses Google's reliance on Apple for search engine services, paying billions to remain the default option on Apple devices. It speculates on the potential impact if Apple were to create its own search engine. The speaker also touches on Google's concern about Mozilla's independence, fearing a monopoly if Firefox fails, leading to potential breakups. Mozilla's attempts to diversify and become less reliant on Google's funding are highlighted, along with the challenges of entering saturated markets with new products like Firefox Relay and Monitor.

05:01

📡 Mozilla's Late Entries into Saturated Markets

This section delves into Mozilla's history of launching products in markets already dominated by established players. Mozilla Monitor, initially Firefox Monitor, is criticized for being a late entrant offering a service similar to 'Have I been pwned', and its paid tier faces competition from well-known brands like Delete Me. Mozilla VPN, rebranded from Firefox Private Network, is revealed as a reseller of Mullvad VPN, entering a crowded VPN market with limited availability. The paragraph also mentions MDN Plus, which started as a documentation tool and pivoted to include AI-generated content, but its value proposition is questioned.

10:03

💡 Mozilla's Experiments and Missed Opportunities

The speaker reflects on Mozilla's pattern of innovation and experimentation, often entering markets too early or too late. Mozilla AI is mentioned as a research-oriented initiative rather than a profit-driven one, contrasting with major players like Google and Meta. The paragraph also discusses Mozilla's acquisition of Anonym, an ad tech firm, and its attempt to improve privacy in digital advertising, an area traditionally lucrative due to data exploitation. The challenges of changing industry practices and the complexity of influencing market shifts are acknowledged.

15:05

📱 Mozilla's Abandoned Projects and the Quest for Independence

In this final paragraph, the speaker reminisces about Mozilla's discontinued projects, such as Firefox Lockwise, Firefox OS, and Ubiquity, which showed potential but were discontinued. The discussion includes Mozilla Prism, an early concept similar to progressive web apps, highlighting a missed opportunity. The speaker expresses a desire for Mozilla to find a successful, sustainable product that could secure its independence, either in an undersaturated market or by offering a compelling alternative in an established one. The paragraph concludes with a call for audience engagement and support for Mozilla's endeavors.

Keywords

💡Search Engine

A search engine is a software system that is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. In the context of the video, it is highlighted that Google is the dominant search engine on Apple devices due to a significant payment to Apple, which is referred to as a 'bribe' in the script. The video suggests that if Apple were to develop its own search engine, it could potentially replace Google as the default on Apple devices, impacting Google's market dominance.

💡Mozilla

Mozilla is a non-profit organization dedicated to making the internet open and accessible to all. The script discusses Mozilla's relationship with Google and its efforts to diversify its product offerings and reduce reliance on Google as a primary source of funding. Mozilla's Firefox browser is mentioned as a key product that has been historically significant in the browser market.

💡Apple Devices

Apple devices refer to the range of consumer electronics designed, developed, and sold by Apple Inc., including iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. The video script points out that if Apple were to introduce its own search engine, it could become the default search engine across all Apple devices, potentially impacting Google's user base significantly.

💡Firefox

Firefox is a free and open-source web browser developed by Mozilla. It is highlighted in the script as Mozilla's flagship product and a key player in the browser market since its inception. The video discusses how Firefox has faced challenges in a saturated market and Mozilla's attempts to innovate and maintain its independence.

💡Market Saturation

Market saturation refers to a state where a product or service has reached its maximum potential market penetration and is now in fierce competition with similar offerings. The script uses this term to critique Mozilla's strategy, suggesting that many of its new products enter markets that are already crowded with established competitors, making it difficult for Mozilla's offerings to gain significant traction.

💡Data Privacy

Data privacy is the practice of safeguarding personal information and ensuring it is used and shared only with the individual's consent. The video mentions Mozilla's efforts to enhance data privacy through various products and initiatives, reflecting the company's commitment to user privacy in contrast to other tech giants.

💡Google Breakups

The term 'Google breakups' refers to the potential antitrust actions that could lead to the division of Google's business due to concerns over monopolistic practices. The script suggests that Google is wary of Mozilla's independence because it could lead to such discussions, which would be detrimental to Google's business interests.

💡Thunderbird

Thunderbird is an email client developed by Mozilla, which is mentioned in the script as one of Mozilla's early products. It is used to illustrate the historical context of Mozilla's product development and its role in the email client market.

💡Mozilla VPN

Mozilla VPN is a virtual private network service offered by Mozilla, which is discussed in the script as an example of Mozilla's attempt to enter the VPN market. The video points out that Mozilla VPN is not an independent service but a reseller of another VPN service, Mullvad, and criticizes its limited availability and market strategy.

💡MDN Web Docs

MDN Web Docs, formerly known as Mozilla Developer Network, is a resource for web developers maintained by Mozilla. The script mentions MDN as a valuable tool for developers and discusses MDN Plus, a subscription service that offers additional features, as an example of Mozilla's efforts to monetize its offerings.

💡Firefox OS

Firefox OS was an open-source operating system for smartphones and other devices developed by Mozilla. The script refers to it as an example of Mozilla's innovative but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to diversify its product line and enter new markets.

Highlights

Google pays Apple $20 billion a year, which is seen as a form of insurance against Apple creating its own search engine.

Apple's potential entry into the search engine market could significantly impact Google due to Apple's loyal user base.

The relationship between Google and Mozilla is influenced more by regulatory concerns than fear of competition.

Google's support for Mozilla is strategic to prevent discussions of Google's breakup.

Mozilla's efforts to diversify and reduce reliance on Google funding have been ongoing.

Mozilla's history of entering markets late with products like Firefox Relay has limited their success.

Firefox Monitor, now Mozilla Monitor, was initially just a wrapper for the Have I been pwned database.

Mozilla's paid services often face competition from well-established market leaders.

Mozilla VPN is a reseller of Mullvad VPN and faces challenges in terms of availability and market saturation.

MDN Web Docs is a valuable resource for web developers, but MDN Plus has not seen significant adoption.

Mozilla's acquisition of Anonym is an attempt to innovate in privacy-focused digital advertising.

Many of Mozilla's past projects, like Firefox OS and Ubiquity, were ahead of their time but failed to gain traction.

Mozilla has a history of innovation but has struggled to maintain relevance in saturated markets.

The speaker expresses a desire for Mozilla to find a niche and become a truly independent organization.

Mozilla's experiments like Mozilla Prism show a pattern of being early to market with concepts that later become popular.

The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to support Mozilla and discuss potential areas for innovation.

Transcripts

Google is absolutely terrified of Apple.

You don't just pay a company $20 billion a year

because you want to, it's basically a bribe.

They know what'll happen if Apple makes their own search engine.

That will become a default across every single Apple device.

And maybe you won't care about it.

But think about the people that buy into things like

Apple intelligence, buy a new iPhone every single year,

even though their previous phone is perfectly fine.

Those are the kinds of people that are going to use the search engine.

The relationship with Mozilla is less of being terrified of Mozilla,

actually not at all terrified of Mozilla,

and more terrified of the government.

They don't want Firefox to collapse

because if it does, there will be legitimate talks about Google breakups.

This part was planned out before the recent lawsuits,

so there's something happening there.

We'll see where that actually goes though.

And Mozilla, for a very long time now,

has tried to branch out into other areas,

has tried to become their own independent organization again,

as opposed to basically just being a Google subsidiary.

Because look, when most of your funding comes from one party,

not just most of your funding, almost all of it,

look, we know what you are at that point.

And look, don't get me wrong here.

I have my issues with Mozilla,

but I want there to be a strong independent Mozilla.

I want Firefox to be a strong independent browser,

and more than just something that's stopping Google getting sued even further.

But every time Mozilla tries to launch a new product,

they try to get into a new market,

they try to better fund the organization.

It seems like basically everything they do

is jumping into a saturated market way too late

and maybe it sticks around for a year or a couple of years.

Maybe it sticks around for a long time,

but it's never really a popular option.

And this is not just a one-time thing.

It seems to happen over and over and over and over again.

So let's consider some current and previous Mozilla products.

When you think of Mozilla,

the first thing you're going to think of is Firefox.

This was started in 2004,

but it didn't really start in 2004

because it was grandfathered in as Netscape

starting considerably earlier than that.

Also, the web was just a very, very different space back then.

Chrome didn't yet exist.

IE was basically the big browser,

and you could much more easily bite off a bit of that space.

Also, you have Thunderbird.

This started in 2003,

and once again, the web was just a very different space back then,

and it's basically just been grandfathered in

as the foundation of Mozilla.

On the Mozilla website, they have a section called Products.

So let's see what is under that.

We have Firefox, Firefox.

Okay, one thing.

Also, there is Thunderbird down here as well.

Let's talk about the other ones.

First product we have is Firefox Relay.

This was launched in 2020

and is basically used for masking a real email address.

So you want to sign up to Netflix, for example,

but you don't want to give them your real address.

You can give them this fake masked address,

and it will still send all of those emails to your main inbox,

but they don't know what your real address is.

This is a perfectly fine service.

Now, the problem is I can use the free tier,

but all of the other ones say join the wait list,

and this isn't just a me thing.

Most of the world is not able to pay them for this service.

Back in 2020, this was a service

already being offered by some entities,

and of course, you could go and self-host it if you wanted to,

but if you're in the market for paying for this,

you won't get a self-hosted anyway.

So back then, they had gone a wide deployment.

They could have gotten a lot of this very niche market share.

Now though, there are services like ProtonPass

and most VPN services offer something like this as well.

There are also some other dedicated services

doing the exact same thing.

Next up, we have Mozilla Monitor.

This was launched in 2018 as Firefox Monitor.

Now, the free tier of this is basically just a wrapper

around the Have I been pwned database.

That's not a joke.

That is what it does.

It shows you if you're in a data leak,

and then just shows you the information

in a nice, well-formatted way.

Now, the paid tier of this was launched

a little bit more recently in February of 2024,

a new tool to automatically remove

your personal information from data broker sites.

So you've probably seen it, YouTube ads,

from companies like Delete Me,

where what they say they do is they go to data brokers

and their question data to be deleted on your behalf.

And if you're someone that actually believes in this service,

this is the first thing you're going to go to.

This is the first thing you're gonna find

because they ran a giant, giant advertising campaign.

All of the big tech YouTubers did at least one ad about this.

There's also a lot of people out there

that think this is kind of a scam

and doesn't think it actually works.

So if they'd launched this maybe a couple of years earlier

and did any sort of advertising for it,

I think they had a chance to get in that market.

But at this point, I don't know how that's possible.

Also, this is not the only other big service out there.

There is a ton of others

and most of them have existed

long before Mozilla was doing this as well.

Next up, we have Mozilla VPN.

This was originally launched in 2019

as Firefox Private Network

and then relaunched again in 2020 as Mozilla VPN.

This is not a secret.

This isn't some breaking news,

but Mozilla VPN is not an independent VPN service.

It is literally just a reseller of Mullvad VPN.

So, sign up to Mullvad VPN.

But also, by 2020,

need I explain how absolutely insane the VPN market was?

How many companies were involved in this space

doing all their own little things?

Oh, we have this nice app.

Oh, you get like 27 different devices off the same account.

All of these little nice things.

What, why would you sign up for this one?

But also, you probably can't sign up

because you noticed this join the waitlist button again.

It's not available in Australia

and not just not available in Australia,

it is not available in most countries in the world.

I don't understand why they're not selling it

in most countries in the world.

Also, especially a country

where you probably want a VPN,

Mozilla VPN will not work if your connection originates

in the People's Republic of China.

I don't understand the way they're managing this.

For the record, that's not a Mullvad thing.

They're perfectly fine selling to people in China

and a bunch of other countries.

Mozilla just doesn't want to.

Next up, we have MDN plus.

If you're a web developer or web adjacent,

you have used MDN.

Whether it be looking at some CSS stuff,

some JavaScript stuff, some of the guides they have,

you have looked at something on this website before.

Even if you didn't go and like search through the page here,

you searched on a search engine

and you absolutely found it.

Now, MDN plus is a little bit different.

This was launched in 2022

and originally offered some things

that frankly aren't that exciting.

You could do things like save articles.

You got notifications if one of the pages changed.

You had offline documentation access

and a development playground.

This I think is literally pointless

because a development playground is also known

as the web browser you are looking at the site in.

And like many programming related products,

in the past year or so,

it also pivoted to being basically a wrapper

around chat GPT and letting you get AI-generated code,

AI-generated documentation results

and searching for docs and things like that.

If you're the kind of person that likes that stuff,

I guess that makes sense.

But I've never heard of anyone actually paying for this

outside of wanting to support MDN plus.

Like what you get as a value proposition here

isn't really that major.

Like yeah, offline documentation is nice,

but if you're developing for the web,

you probably have an active internet connection.

And being able to like have a collection

of different articles is nice,

but that's also known as your bookmarks.

Also every web browser has like a collection system

built in any way that's outside of bookmarks.

So it's stuff that like is neat,

but isn't a big like driver.

I would imagine that MDN plus basically is enough

to keep MDN running.

They also have Fakespot and Pocket.

Both of them are really nice.

And I know a lot of people like to use Fakespot,

but both of these are free.

So they're not really relevant to the discussion.

And there are other things Mozilla has gotten into

that aren't listed here.

For example, Mozilla AI, democratizing open source AI

to solve real user problems.

But unlike something like chat GPT,

a product using open AI's GPT-4,

this is less of a solution trying to make money

and more of it spending money on a research problem

to try and make something that's nice and functional here.

And maybe sometime down the line,

there will be a money making venture in this area.

But at least for now,

that's not what Mozilla seems to be doing.

But also competing with the absolute giants in this space

like open AI, Google, Meta, and all of the others.

I'm sure you can carve out a space there,

but it's going to be a small space.

And we can't forget Mozilla acquiring ad tech firm Anonym,

raising the bar for privacy preserving digital advertising.

I have some issues with the approach they are taking

and the possible effectiveness of their solution.

But it is nice to see Mozilla at least trying

to solve the advertising problem,

trying to make it more private.

The issue though is,

why do you think big companies in the advertising space

don't want to make it more private?

The answer is there is a lot of money

in keeping it not private at all.

Trying to just take all of your user data,

sell it for as much money as possible.

And if companies can get away with it,

they are going to do so.

So trying to convince people to get on board with this,

really the only way you do so

is getting government people on board first

and then possibly leading to like lawsuits

against major companies.

And it's a mess of a situation.

And I don't see much coming out of this anytime soon.

Now, many of you probably know

about the Google graveyard killed by Google.

How many of you know of the sister site killed by Mozilla?

There is a lot of things in here,

not as much as Google,

but a lot of things that if you ask me,

are really, really cool.

How many of you remember Firefox Lockwise?

Mozilla had a password manager.

And from what I've heard from people,

it was pretty good.

And look when they killed it off, 2021.

If they kept it running,

password managers now are only getting more

and more popular.

Who remembers Firefox OS from 2013 to 2016?

They were making an operating system

for smartphones, tablets, smart TVs,

much like Canonical was doing at the time as well.

The only difference is they actually had devices

that were being sold like this.

Granted, there weren't many of them.

And yes, Android and iOS had already taken

a giant market share at this point.

But if they could have kept it going,

I would have been very interested to see

where it would be because I have a feeling

it could have been in that like very low-end tier devices

like you see with Amazon's fire devices today.

Going back even further, who remembers Ubiquity?

Now there's like seven different things called Ubiquity,

but in Mozilla's case,

this was an experiment to add a natural language-based

command line to Firefox that helped users

get tasks on the web done faster.

Back in 2011, 2012,

yeah, the tech just wasn't really there yet.

But it's getting a lot better now.

And if this had stuck around,

and maybe there was something along the lines

of like GPT-4 powering it,

I am curious to see where this would be today.

I've seen some experiments messing around with that,

but this seems to be the case with Mozilla.

They make a lot of experiment

and they're either in a saturated market

or they do things way too early

and then never reapproach the topic again.

Like for example, Mozilla Prism from 2007 to 2011,

Mozilla Prism allowed users to run web apps

directly on their desktop outside of their browser.

What does this sound like?

Progressive web apps,

which Firefox doesn't support today

or they're working on supporting again?

They literally did progressive web apps back in 2007.

Honestly, I wish Mozilla the best of luck

and I really hope they find something

that actually has the ability to be a big product from Mozilla.

Something in a space that isn't wildly saturated

or if it's in a saturated market space,

a way that it actually competes

and makes people want to use it.

Because as it stands,

Mozilla is kind of just like trying things out

and a lot of them don't seem to stick

and then they get killed off

and in some cases they should have stuck

if they just stuck around with it for a bit longer

and didn't kill off the project.

But what do you think?

What do you think Mozilla should work on?

Is there an area being underserved

that you really think that if they just put

a bit of effort into it,

they could completely take over that market

and actually find a way

to be an independent company once again?

I would love to know.

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That's gonna be it for me and again,

I really want Mozilla to do well, but.

Ha.

Hahaha.