When Google paid websites to promote Firefox

[adamwk]

This reminds me when my parents would have half their browser covered in random toolbars they'd get tricked into installing, whether by online ads or software bundled with them. The modern dark patterns are really nothing like the early 2000's windows days.

[HeavyFeather]

Oof, what? Toolbars were painfully visible, but spam extensions are just as common today. The difference is that today you can get them straight from the comfort of the top search result for any innocuous term.

The web today, without an ad blocker, is just as land-mined as it’s always been. And getting your spam code installed is super easy, barely an inconvenience.

[yedava]

Smartphones are the modern dark patterns and are far worse than IE era toolbars. The toolbars and other Windows crap were easy to notice and easy to get rid off. The modern smartphone is a fast, sleek and utterly locked down device which collects a firehose of your personal data without ever giving any indication that it is harming you. Out of sight, out of mind.

[grishka]

So many installers for windows software tried to sneak the yandex toolbar past people clicking "next" without looking, it became a meme.

[MiddleEndian]

Tragically, Microsoft has looked back and realized that people will put up with a lot of shit, so they decided to implement about 20% of it themselves.

[olyjohn]

Yeah they were obvious, and easy to clean up back in those days. Now it's happening, and it's just built into the software you use, including your OS... and most people have no way of knowing.

[andirk]

I miss those toolbars. And some ads had search bars in them that they'd also use to search thinking it was Aks Jeeves or whatever.

[ameyamk]

This was a brilliant strategy. It allowed Google time to build Chrome at the same time slowing down : (1) explorer (2) Got decent data on CAC for browsers and what channels work and what don't.

Its interesting to see new era of browser wars playing out with Chrome firmly in the lead, but Microsoft attacking with Edge where ChatGPT on bing only available on edge browser and no where else. Would be interesting to see how Google would respond.

[Dalewyn]

Chrome vs. Edge is not a browser war, they are both Chrome.

Speaking more broadly, the browser war is all but decided until the Chromes fail of their own accords.

The only non-Chrome browsers still in existence today are Safari and the Firefoxes (Firefox and its various forks). Safari is only relevant in iOS by way of Apple gatekeeping, and Firefox hasn't been relevant for well over the past decade thanks to Mozilla's utter mismanagement and malice.

[throwaway128128]

Explorer didn't need "slowing down". It was in maintenance mode and being developed it on a shoestring budget around the days of IE6-IE7. Microsoft apparently decided that the web browser circa 2006 was essentially a finished product because they had "won" - IE had no serious mass market competition on Windows.

[amelius]

I want to see a new era of wars where web admins fight for web freedom and start subtly penalizing BigCorp web browsers, e.g. by showing annoying popups or slightly delaying loading times.

[b7r6]

The "Best Google" busts up Microsoft monopolies via going big on open software and open standards.

The "Worst Google" copies the business model they just un-fucked.

I'd say in 2023, we really need the "Best Google".

[LegitShady]

best google is long dead. long live best google.

[kccqzy]

Note that before Google had Chrome, they contributed quite a bit to Firefox. Some of the features and initiatives (like Safe Browsing) actually began as features for Firefox.

[vinhboy]

Fun memory, I made like $40K selling Firefox downloads.... on google ads. Learned a lot about google ads and SEO.

That was a lot of money for me as a poor kid from the TL.

[n1b0m]

Were you paid by Mozilla?

[101008]

Oh man... I am so nostalgic of the past web. Probalby because I became the person I am browsing that web (I was a teenager maturing).

The images of the old Google and the Google Toolbar (in the web.archive link) brought so many memories... Not only of internet, but what was happening with my life around it, the people I had, and more. Those were the happy times, weren't?

[wildrhythms]

It's a nostalgia blast isn't it! For more reminiscing:

Web Design Museum: https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/

Yesterweb community: https://yesterweb.org/

[rvnx]

Remembering also when Google Chrome was aggressively bundled with toolbars, antiviruses and various "speed boosters".

[cpeterso]

Chrome used to be bundled with Adobe's Flash Player installer. Chrome bundled the Flash Player, so the only people downloading Adobe's Flash Player installer would be Firefox users. So excellent user targeting on Google's behalf. But those Firefox users didn't want Chrome; they wanted the Flash Player for their Firefox.

[crazygringo]

What toolbars or speed boosters are you talking about?

I don't remember any of that and Chrome doesn't even support toolbars.

Or am I misunderstanding something?

Chrome on Windows had a malware checker built in. Which you can debate whether that belongs, but that's not really bundling, just a feature. Which arguably helps protect browser security.

[kccqzy]

Google only recently decided to retire the "cleanup tool" that was bundled with Chrome.

Back when it was clear that Google wanted users not to suffer from malware but they didn't want to draw the attention or ire of established antivirus companies.

https://security.googleblog.com/2023/03/thank-you-and-goodby...

[tech234a]

The associated landing page for this was still up until fairly recently: https://web.archive.org/web/20220819085123/https://tools.goo...

[opportune]

For people talking about openness, walled gardens, etc.

If Google at the time could figure out how much their marketing assisted Firefox adoption, and saw that the marketing was a huge if not main driver, does it not make complete sense for them to just write their own browser and market that?

If I basically had a guarantee that some product would see huge adoption if it only existed, I would start working on that in a heartbeat.

[pessimizer]

Who knew that eventually Google would pretty much be Firefox's only source of income?

[johannes1234321]

Thing is: You can't easily donate to Firefox. One can send money to the Mozilla Foundation, which is a political organisation (where I share many of the goals, but still spend my "political" money elsewhere) not to Mozilla Corporation, who are the developers.

[3np]

Google?

[substation13]

There comes a time in every company's evolution when they switch from supporting openness (an opportunity) to protecting the walled garden from openness (now a threat)

[ChuckNorris89]

Google's suport of Firefox wasn't a benevolent action on their side to support openness but to erode IE's monopoly for their own benefit till they could launch their own browser.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend".

[robk]

Oh I ran this as a product manager and even worked on those graphics. Ama.

[rodric]

I note that Google Toolbar had a big RSS ‘Subscribe’ button…

[Brajeshwar]

Oh! Wow, this was a good earner for websites in those days.

[RedCondor]

It's interesting that

explorer is like some kind of evil Spanish conquistador

chrome is like some kind of terminator

and firefox is like a cute, cuddly, endangered fox

[thaumasiotes]

> explorer is like some kind of evil Spanish conquistador

Sure you're not thinking of Konqueror? It was named in what was seen as a logical sequence from "explorer" and "navigator".

[n0tahacker]

Do you also know the plaquette "View this in any browser"??

[ignoramous]

Google hired a bunch of Mozilla folks in 2005/06 to create Chrome. What'd they say about embrace, extend, extinguish?

[tirpen]

Those two sentences are totally unrelated to each other.