How Mozilla Ruined Firefox

Summary

The video script discusses the decline of Firefox's market share and questions Mozilla's commitment to privacy. Despite promoting privacy, Mozilla's actions, such as using Google as the default search engine for revenue and integrating privacy-invasive features, contradict their messaging. The script criticizes Mozilla's business decisions, failed projects, and lack of user-centric updates, suggesting these factors contribute to Firefox's irrelevance and user abandonment.

Takeaways

• 📉 Firefox has been losing market share for over a decade, with only 2.79% of internet users currently using it, compared to a peak of nearly a third.
• 🦊 The Firefox logo's fox is still alive, but the browser's relevance is diminishing, despite the common narrative that Google Chrome's dominance is solely due to its marketing budget.
• 💡 Mozilla, the organization behind Firefox, has been criticized for making a series of bad decisions that have negatively impacted Firefox's user experience and trustworthiness.
• 🔒 Mozilla's emphasis on privacy is contradicted by its actions, such as using Google as the default search engine, which is known for its privacy invasive practices, and collecting user data through Google Analytics and other tracking tools.
• 🤔 The script challenges Mozilla's commitment to privacy, highlighting the discrepancy between their public stance and their business practices, including partnerships with companies that do not prioritize user privacy.
• 📉 Firefox's performance, speed, and convenience are considered inferior to Google Chrome, which has a 65% market share, making it difficult for Firefox to compete without a strong differentiating factor.
• 🛒 Mozilla's acquisition of Fakespot, a browser extension that tracks users and shares data with advertisers, raises further questions about the company's stance on privacy.
• 📈 Mozilla is portrayed as a big business rather than a non-profit organization, with significant assets and revenue, much of which comes from Google rather than donations.
• 💼 The script points out that Mozilla's leadership has received substantial pay increases while the company has laid off employees, suggesting a disconnect between the company's values and its actions.
• 🛠️ Firefox's UI updates and redesigns have often been met with user dissatisfaction, indicating a lack of user-centric design and a possible reason for the loss of long-term users.
• 🏆 Mozilla's attempts to branch out with new products like a VPN or password manager have largely been unsuccessful, suggesting a lack of strategic direction and a failure to innovate effectively.

Q & A

Why has Firefox been losing market share for over a decade?

Firefox has been losing market share due to a combination of factors including competition from browsers like Google Chrome, which has a larger market share and more resources for marketing and development, as well as a series of bad decisions made by Mozilla, the organization behind Firefox.

What is the current market share of Firefox compared to its peak usage?

At its peak, Firefox had almost a third of all internet users. However, currently, only about 2.79% of people use Firefox, indicating a significant decline from its previous market share.

What is the most common narrative for Firefox's decline in popularity?

The most common narrative is that Google Chrome, with its extensive marketing budget and integration with other Google services, has overshadowed Firefox, leading to its decline in user base.

How does Mozilla portray Firefox in terms of privacy?

Mozilla portrays Firefox as a privacy-focused browser, emphasizing that it protects user privacy by default and does not like the creepy trackers that follow users around the internet.

Why might Mozilla's stance on privacy be considered hypocritical?

Despite Mozilla's claims of prioritizing privacy, they have been criticized for using Google as the default search engine, which is known for its privacy invasive practices, and for integrating features like Google Analytics and Google reCAPTCHA on their website, which collect user data.

What is the financial relationship between Mozilla and Google?

Google pays Mozilla approximately half a billion dollars every year to be the default search engine in Firefox, which raises questions about Mozilla's commitment to privacy and their reliance on Google's revenue.

How does Mozilla's acquisition of Fakespot reflect on their commitment to privacy?

The acquisition of Fakespot, a browser extension that collects user data for targeted ads, contradicts Mozilla's stated commitment to privacy, as it shows they are willing to collect and share user data with third-party advertising partners.

What is Pocket and how does it relate to Mozilla's stance on privacy?

Pocket is a bookmarking service integrated into Firefox that allows users to save articles to read later. However, it has been criticized for not caring about user privacy, as it collects data and sends advertising cookies, which contradicts Mozilla's privacy-focused image.

How does Mozilla's financial status as a non-profit and its for-profit subsidiaries affect public perception?

While Mozilla is a non-profit foundation, it has two for-profit subsidiaries that generate significant revenue. This can create confusion and skepticism about Mozilla's motives and whether they prioritize profits over user privacy and experience.

What is the significance of Mozilla's donations in their overall revenue?

Donations make up a very small percentage of Mozilla's revenue, with only 1% coming from donations in 2021. This suggests that Mozilla's operations are largely self-sustained through other means, such as the revenue from Google as the default search engine.

How do Mozilla's actions and decisions reflect on their commitment to the open web and user privacy?

Mozilla's actions, such as integrating privacy-invasive features and prioritizing profits over user privacy, have led to a perception that they may not be as committed to the open web and user privacy as they claim to be.

Outlines

00:00

🦊 Firefox's Struggle with Market Share and Privacy Concerns

The script discusses the decline in Firefox's market share, once a leading web browser with significant user base, now reduced to a mere 2.79%. It questions Mozilla's commitment to privacy, highlighting the discrepancy between their public stance and their actions, such as using Google as the default search engine despite its privacy invasive nature. The script also points out Mozilla's financial reliance on Google, receiving a substantial sum annually to keep Google as the default option, which contradicts their 'people over profits' slogan. Furthermore, it criticizes the integration of Google Analytics and other tracking tools on Mozilla's website, undermining their claims of protecting user privacy.

05:01

🤔 Contradictions in Mozilla's Privacy Policies and Products

This paragraph delves into Mozilla's acquisition of Fakespot, a browser extension designed to identify fake reviews, and criticizes its privacy policy for collecting extensive user data, including shopping history and location, and sharing it with third-party advertisers. The script also mentions the integration of Pocket, a bookmarking service with questionable privacy practices, directly into Firefox, questioning Mozilla's genuine concern for user privacy. It further discusses Mozilla's collection of telemetry data from users by default, which users must opt out of, and portrays Mozilla's business practices as being at odds with their non-profit image, pointing out their substantial assets and revenue, largely derived from Google, not donations.

10:02

🛠️ Mozilla's Disconnect with Users and Controversial Decisions

The final paragraph addresses Mozilla's apparent disconnect with their user base, highlighting decisions that have negatively impacted Firefox's reputation and user experience. It criticizes Mozilla for prioritizing new users over long-time fans, making UI updates that reduced accessibility and removed beloved features. The script also mentions Mozilla's failed attempts at diversifying their product line, such as a VPN and password manager, and questions the company's incentive to improve Firefox given their guaranteed revenue from Google. It concludes with a discussion of Mozilla's layoffs and the CEO's pay increases during difficult financial times, suggesting a lack of alignment with the company's values and a potential reason for Firefox's decline.

Keywords

💡Firefox

Firefox is an independent web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It is known for its distinctive Fox logo and was once a leading browser with significant market share. The script discusses Firefox's decline in popularity, attributing it to both external competition and internal decisions by Mozilla. For instance, the script mentions that Firefox has been losing market share for over a decade, with a significant drop in monthly active users.

💡Market Share

Market share refers to the percentage of an industry's total sales revenue that is generated by a particular company or product. In the context of the video, Firefox's market share has been declining, with the script stating that it has dropped to a mere 2.79%, a stark contrast to its past dominance.

💡Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google, which has become the most popular browser globally. The script suggests that Chrome's dominance, with a 65% market share, is a significant factor in Firefox's decline. However, it also implies that Mozilla's own decisions have contributed to Firefox's struggles.

💡Mozilla

Mozilla is the organization behind the Firefox browser. The script criticizes Mozilla for making a series of poor decisions that have negatively impacted Firefox's reputation and user base. It also discusses Mozilla's financial reliance on Google, which raises questions about its commitment to user privacy.

💡Privacy

Privacy is a central theme in the script, with the author questioning Mozilla's commitment to it. Despite Firefox's marketing emphasizing privacy protection, the script points out that Mozilla's actions, such as using Google as the default search engine and integrating privacy-invasive tools, contradict their privacy stance.

💡Default Search Engine

A default search engine is the search service that a browser uses by default when the user initiates a search. The script highlights the contradiction of Firefox using Google as its default search engine despite Google's invasive data collection practices, which is at odds with Mozilla's claims of prioritizing privacy.

💡Telemetry

Telemetry in the context of browsers refers to the data collection from users for analytics and improvement purposes. The script criticizes Firefox for collecting a significant amount of telemetry data from users by default, which users must opt out of, suggesting a lack of genuine concern for user privacy.

💡Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy is the act of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. The script uses this term to describe Mozilla's actions, which often contradict their public statements about valuing privacy and putting people over profits.

💡Fakespot

Fakespot is a browser extension that Mozilla acquired, which is designed to help users identify fake reviews online. The script, however, criticizes the extension for its own privacy-invasive practices, such as collecting user data for targeted advertising, which contradicts Mozilla's stance on privacy.

💡Pocket

Pocket is a service integrated into Firefox that allows users to save articles and other content to read later. The script mentions Pocket as an example of Mozilla integrating services that do not align with their stated commitment to privacy, as Pocket also engages in data collection for advertising purposes.

💡Censorship

Censorship refers to the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security. The script discusses Mozilla's contradictory stance on censorship, suggesting a need for more to combat fake news while also advocating for an open web.

💡Activism

Activism involves the advocacy for political, economic, or social change. The script describes Mozilla's involvement in activism, such as promoting online petitions to encourage corporations to respect user privacy. However, it questions the effectiveness of these efforts and their alignment with Mozilla's own practices.

💡Layoffs

Layoffs refer to the termination of employment for a group of workers, usually due to economic conditions or company restructuring. The script mentions Mozilla's layoffs of a significant portion of its employees, many of whom were involved in Firefox development, as a point of criticism, especially in light of the CEO's pay increases during this time.

Highlights

Firefox has been losing market share for over a decade, with a current usage of only 2.79%.

Google Chrome's dominance with a 65% market share is often cited as the reason for Firefox's decline.

Mozilla's decisions and hypocrisy have led to a loss of 70 million monthly active users over five years.

Firefox's privacy stance is questioned due to its use of Google as the default search engine, receiving half a billion dollars annually from Google.

Mozilla's website uses Google Analytics and other tracking tools, contradicting their privacy claims.

Firefox's performance, speed, and convenience are considered inferior to Google Chrome's.

Mozilla's acquisition of Fakespot, a browser extension with a privacy-invasive policy, raises concerns about their commitment to user privacy.

Pocket, integrated into Firefox, also disregards user privacy by collecting data for personalized ads.

Firefox's telemetry collects extensive user data by default, requiring users to opt out.

Mozilla's financials reveal it as a big business with over 1.1 billion dollars in assets, not just a non-profit.

Donations to Mozilla constitute only 1% of their revenue, with none going towards Firefox development.

Mozilla's activism includes online petitions to improve privacy standards of big tech companies, with limited effectiveness.

Mozilla's stance on censorship and the open web is inconsistent, with calls for more censorship to combat fake news.

Firefox's UI updates and redesigns have been met with backlash from long-time users.

Mozilla's attempts to diversify with products like a VPN or password manager have largely failed.

Mozilla's layoffs of software developers contrast with executive pay increases, raising questions about company priorities.

The speaker expresses a desire for Firefox to improve and regain user trust through better decision-making and product focus.

Transcripts

remember Firefox the independent web

browser with the cool Fox logo despite

what you may have heard the fox in the

logo is still alive and well but I'm not

sure if I can say the same for Firefox

itself because Firefox has been losing

market share for over a decade they used

to be on top of the world with almost a

third of all internet users using

Firefox

but these days only a pitiful 2.79 of

people still use Firefox

and Firefox has been constantly losing

users in the past five years they've

lost 70 million monthly active users or

almost 30 percent of their users why is

Firefox doing so badly now if you look

at some people talking about Firefox

online you'll probably see a lot of

people saying that oh it's just because

Google Chrome took over the market and

Google just has an unlimited marketing

budget so of course they're going to

take over the market and there's not

much that Firefox could have done and

that seems to be the most common

narrative that you hear out there

unfortunately for them Google Chrome

just ate their lunch because Google

Chrome is now the most popular web

browser in the world with a 65 market

share

but I don't think that's the whole story

because Mozilla the organization behind

a Firefox has been constantly making bad

decision after bad decision over the

years and over the years mozilla's

hypocrisy they're disregarded for their

users and their active efforts to just

make Firefox worse instead of better

have finally caught up to them and

people are abandoning ship so how did

Mozilla and Firefox go from one of the

most beloved browsers to irrelevant and

even hated

so in order to get to the bottom of

things I think we need to start where

most people do on their download page

so all over their download page we can

see what makes Firefox different and

probably the most common theme that

you'll see on here is privacy Mozilla

protects your privacy Mozilla cares

about your privacy Mozilla gives you

outstanding privacy by default Firefox

doesn't like all of these creepy

trackers that follow you around the

internet I'm sure you know that big

companies like Facebook and Google

collect all kinds of your personal data

to sell to advertisers and at first

glance this sounds pretty good of course

I want a browser that cares about my

privacy

so you might think that Mozilla is going

to protect you from these big evil

companies like Google that want to

harvest your personal data I mean they

even ran this giant advertising campaign

years ago

saying big browser is watching you

actually that's pretty clever

and all over mozilla's website you will

hear them put people over profits that's

almost their unofficial slogan so you

might be surprised whenever you download

an open Firefox for the first time and

you see that the default search engine

is Google

now that's a little bit weird because

Google is one of the most privacy

invasive search engines out there you

would think that they would use

something like doc.go which does respect

your privacy

and you might be a little bit confused

until you take a look at mozilla's

financials and realize that Google is

giving them half a billion dollars every

single year in order to put them as the

default search engine and from the

outside it might look like they're

really against Google but in fact

they're mozilla's biggest customer

and I kind of understand because if I

was getting 500 million dollars from

Google every year I also would put

profits over people

but you might not even think that's a

huge deal because this is kind of common

knowledge a lot of people already know

this

because besides this I'm sure that they

really care about protecting their users

from online tracking right well except

for the fact that their website has

Google analytics and Google recaptcha

and a Google double click pixel so that

they can track their users and send all

their data to Google and they send your

location to Google in their browser and

they ping Google in your browser to make

sure that you're not going to a

malicious website uh but besides that

they really don't want Google tracking

you and collecting all of your data

right

so at this point you might be thinking

maybe Mozilla doesn't care about privacy

as much as they claim to

but why does all of this privacy stuff

really matter well I would say that

privacy is one of the only things that

Firefox still has that makes it better

than Google Chrome because objectively

Firefox is worse than Chrome in

performance and speed and convenience

you can't just sign in with your Google

account something that everybody already

has and sync it across every device

not to mention that a lot of websites

just work better on Chrome than Firefox

because since most people use Chrome a

lot of developers optimize for it

instead of Firefox

it's sad but true and so if Firefox is

worse than Chrome in all of these

aspects then why would you use Firefox

over chrome well probably your privacy

right I think a lot of people use

Firefox because they care about privacy

they don't want Google to collect all of

their data but Mozilla has shown time

and time that they really don't care

about privacy as much as they say they

do

as another example let's take a look at

fake spot so fake spot is a company that

Mozilla recently acquired and they make

a browser extension that helps you spot

fake reviews online seems useful right

but let's check their privacy policy

what kind of information do they collect

about their users and they say they're

going to use your personal information

to provide you with content and

advertisements wait is a Mozilla against

using personal data for targeted ads I

guess not because what this browser

extension collects about you it collects

your online shopping history your

location your browser info your search

history and it tracks you with cookies

and tracking pixels oh and they also

share all of this information with

third-party advertising partners

so they're going to harvest all of your

personal data and then just send it

wherever they want Amazon just bought

this company a few months ago and they

say they want to integrate this into

Firefox directly but of course when they

put it in Firefox they're going to make

a more privacy respecting right well I

don't know about that because Mozilla is

already promoting fake spot they're

telling you to download it on their

website and they're telling you what a

great tool it is except they don't

mention the part where they collect all

of your data and give it to advertisers

so great job Mozilla doesn't that sound

like a feature that you want built into

your privacy browser

but this isn't the only terrible product

that Mozilla has integrated into Firefox

because a few years ago they integrated

pocket into their browser now pocket is

a bookmarking service where maybe you

can save an article to read later and

when you first start up Firefox you'll

see a save to pocket button

and sponsored articles from pocket by

default oh yeah and pocket also doesn't

care about your privacy either

so as soon as I go to pocket's website

they're immediately trying to send me

advertising cookies

they want to give me personalized ads by

sending all of my data to a third party

Advertiser at least it's a limited

amount of data thanks Mozilla I mean at

least it's opt-in that's what this giant

cookie Banner is for but why do they

need to show me personalized ads in the

first place

not to mention that by default Firefox

collects a whole bunch of data about you

it sends an absolute boatload of

telemetry to Mozilla that you have to

opt out of not opt-in

so that's great I love sending my

browser tons of information about me

so does Mozilla really care about your

privacy or is that just something they

say because privacy is trendy now I mean

even companies like Facebook are telling

us how much they care about our privacy

so that's one reason why you might not

trust Mozilla or Firefox

but wait a minute let's back up a little

bit so before I said that Google was

giving Firefox almost 500 million

dollars a year

and you might be wondering why is

Mozilla making so much bank I thought

they were a non-profit this sounds like

big business well Mozilla the foundation

is a non-profit but the non-profit is

only the rapper for two for-profit

companies these are both 100 owned by

Mozilla the Mozilla Corporation and

Mozilla Technologies Corporation and

unlike the noble non-profit these

companies are all about making that

cheddar and make no mistake Mozilla is a

big business they like to present

themselves as the scrappy Underdog but

as of 2021 they have over 1.1 billion

dollars in assets so this is a huge

company but wait a minute it doesn't

Mozilla also collect donations if

they're making so much money what do

they need donations for on their website

they say that they rely on donations

that's not entirely true donations only

make up one percent of their revenue in

2021 they receive 7 million dollars out

of 600 million dollars in Revenue

oh and by the way if you donate to

Mozilla not a single cent of your

donations go towards Firefox

maybe you want to support your favorite

browser by donating to Mozilla but is

not making the browser any better all of

that money goes to mozilla's Social Work

uh you might be wondering what kind of

work does the Mozilla Foundation do

so this is kind of an activist

organization that tries to make the

world better

and they have created some absolutely

great work like this extension right

here that turns bad words into boss

so instead of getting harassed online

you are now being empowered with this

extension and with this extension

installed you get amazing phrases Like

Son of a boss

or maybe you've been boss slapped I wish

I was making this up

but if that doesn't impress you too much

that is not the only activism that

Mozilla does they also want to make big

bad corporations like Tick Tock slack

Tinder and YouTube better they want

these corporations to respect their

users privacy more or maybe be more

transparent and the way they're going to

do this is with online petitions because

everybody knows how effective online

petitions are right

but they also post their victories like

they finally got slack to implement a

block button which I guess is good

and they finally got Tick Tock to be

more transparent I guess now even if you

think this work is valuable and maybe

they can convince these big companies to

protect some small aspect of users

privacy these companies have already

taken 10 steps forward and Mozilla is

only making them take one step back I

don't think the solution to all of the

problems with big Tech is kindly asking

them to stop being big meanies

Mozilla is also completely out of touch

and it seems like they want to alienate

their users as much as possible like in

one article it sounds like they're all

against censorship and Mozilla always

talks about how much they care about the

open web but in the next article they're

talking about how we need more

censorship because we need to get rid of

fake news and we have to have these

social media companies amplify factual

voices over disinformation wait I

thought they didn't even like these big

Tech platforms and how does getting big

Tech to censor even more help the open

web

and they always talk about people over

profits but they keep making decisions

that show that they don't care about

this like that time when they

automatically installed suspicious

add-ons without users consent

or maybe show giant Disney ads in their

browser that nobody wanted just so they

could make a quick buck with a

sponsorship it seems like they never

listen to their users because all of

their redesigns and UI updates to

Firefox are always almost universally

hated like their latest redesign effort

that just made accessibility worse and

removed features that long time users

really like and Firefox is not really in

the position to be saying to their users

well just deal with it because if people

don't like the redesign they will just

leave this is the kind of company that

really needs to listen to his most loyal

fans because these are the only people

that really still care about Firefox

but with every update it just seems like

they want to simplify things for new

users without ever thinking about what

the old users want they want to make it

easier to use but most normal people are

just going to choose Google Chrome

because their browser has barely

improved in years they keep trying to

throw out random things like a new

Mozilla VPN or a password manager and

most of these things outside of the

browser that they try are just total

failures I mean at this point mozilla's

failed projects are even giving Google's

graveyard a run for its money

and they have no real incentive to make

their browser better because even if

they do a terrible job and Shrink their

market share even more they always get

their big 500 million dollar check from

Google every year so really what

incentive is there to improve it how

about the time when they laid off almost

a quarter of their employees

and all of these people were working in

software development presumably most of

them working on Firefox

and of course Firefox is the only thing

actually bringing in money for them

and to add insult to injury during all

of these layoffs the CEO took a major

pay increase

when mozilla's new CEO Michelle Baker

took over Wildfire Fox's market share

was declining she took a huge pay

increase from one million dollars a year

to 2.5 million in 2018 and as Firefox is

circling the drain she's taken even a

bigger pay increase in 2021 she made 5.6

million dollars while her company is

falling apart but during these tough

times when all of these software

developers were losing their jobs none

of the executives could possibly accept

a pay decrease that's too much to ask

for oh but they just couldn't have done

anything differently I mean maybe

Nintendo could whenever they were going

through some tough times they didn't lay

off any staff the CEO of Nintendo gave

himself a 50 pay cut and all of the

other board members also took small pay

decreases

but of course you can't expect Mozilla

to be held to these same sorts of

standards and so with all of these bad

decisions that Mozilla has made over the

years you'll have to forgive me if I

find it very hard to trust Mozilla with

anything anymore

because the reason that Firefox is doing

so badly right now is because of

mozilla's bad decisions in each of these

small bad decisions that Mozilla makes

doesn't really sound like that big of a

deal but over time these bad decisions

really start to pile up and I think that

this is more than anything what is

really doing Firefox in they've made

their browser worse they essentially lie

to their users by claiming that they

care about privacy when they really

don't you can tell by their actions they

constantly say one thing and then do the

opposite

so I guess it's do as I say not do as I

do but I'm not even saying this out of a

place of hate I really want Firefox to

get better I want them to start making

better decisions I want them to refocus

their attention on building a good

product I want them to listen to their

users pay attention to what their

biggest fans want instead of trying to

appease anybody but them

I like Firefox I still use Firefox on a

daily basis at least after you remove

all of the junk that Mozilla is added

over the years I really want Firefox and

Mozilla to do better but I'm not holding

my breath anymore