Mozilla Grows with Google

First appeared in eWeek
Google will pay Mozilla $300 million a year for the next three years in a search deal it renewed earlier this week. The deal will give Mozilla much-needed cash to grow its business.

The Christmas holiday isn't the only thing Mozilla employees have to be cheerful about these days.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is paying the software maker $300 million a year over the next three year to feature its search engine in its Firefox Web browser, AllThingsDigital learned Dec. 22.

If true, Mozilla will take in nearly three times as much in 2012 as it took in 2010, when nearly $100 million of its $123 million in revenues came from its previous search deal with Google.

AllThingsDigital said Mozilla was able to command such a handsome sum by including Google search rivals Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) in the bidding process for the coveted slot in Firefox, which has anywhere from 22 to 25 percent market share, or hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

Google and Mozilla declined to comment on the financial terms of the new agreement, which Mozilla announced Dec. 20 and confirmed was good for at least the next three years.

In the arrangement, Mozilla drives searches to Google.com from the search box in Firefox and Google pays Mozilla a portion of ad revenues generated from those searches.

The arrangement is certainly interesting because it's not without some tension. Google launched its Chrome Web browser in September 2008, when Firefox was on its way to garnering 25 percent share by nibbling away at Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Internet Explorer share.

Chrome commands anywhere from 18 percent to 25 percent market share, depending on whether you believe the more conservative number from Net Applications, or the loftier number from StatCounter.

By tripling its revenue with Google's search deal alone, Mozilla is the big winner in this deal. The company gets the cash to fund other projects beyond Firefox, which, while popular and steadily improving, is no longer growing.

Mozilla Messaging CEO David Ascher identified some of those projects as Boot2Gecko, a Firefox OS for smartphones; the identity-based BrowserID alternative to Facebook Connect and Google Account credentials; and Apps initiative, which is intended to help developers write programs that work on all devices.

Google wins on multiple fronts. One, it benefits from millions of searches driven by millions of Firefox users. Two, it keeps those searches away from Bing , which at only 15 percent market share is more desperate to have them.

Three, Google comes off as a benevolent benefactor, providing the majority of funds for a leading, fellow open-source Web browser with which it shares a lot of common interests.

Finally, Firefox and Chrome both win because together they account for anywhere from 40 to 50 percent market share, providing a nice pair of open-source alternatives to market leader Microsoft Internet Explorer, which has dominated the market for the last 15 years since stamping out Netscape.

How Google Apps Marketplace Works

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Google Apps Marketplace is an online location where company information technology professionals can go to shop for software application services. These applications can be integrated for use alongside company networks, intranet and other IT services at a potentially lower cost than customized company software solutions.

The service applications in Google Apps Marketplace are submitted by vendors who pay a $100.00 marketing fee to place their applications with Google Apps Marketplace and they can be subsequently uploaded and used by Google users who also use Google Apps for Businesses.

HOW GOOGLE MARKETPLACE APPS WORKS:

To illustrate how Google Apps Marketplace works ABC Company uses Google Apps for Businesses to manage its scheduling, email, and client documentation storage. Instead of managing these services in house, ABC Company decides it would be more cost effective to do so using Google Apps for Businesses.

Google describes this as 'Cloud Computing' and it helps businesses reduce costs through lower storage and IT management requirements and ready made IT services that are adaptable to an existing network.

Google Apps Marketplace is an extension of Google Apps for Businesses in the sense that the software on Google Apps Marketplace is downloadable and compatible alongside software from Google Apps for Businesses.

WHAT GOOGLE MARKETPLACE APPS DOES:

A number of online product and service software solutions exist when using Google Apps Marketplace and include accounting, marketing, workflow, and project management. Many of the applications on Google Apps Marketplace are rated by users to help other users get a sense of the application's quality.

Additionally, some of the products and services offered on Google Marketplace Apps are free and some charge a fairly low monthly fee. These products and services can be searched for using specific integration requirements such as email and calendar integration compatibility.

For example, one of the applications on Google Marketplace Apps is called 'Manymoon: Free social Productivity, Project Management and Task Management. This particular application allows individuals involved with a project to update the projects progress at a single online location reference point. In such case, even if people working on the projects are located in different offices, locations or cities, the project can remain focused and organized through referencing this particular Google Marketplace Application. Many other potentially useful business

 applications are available on the site.

GETTING STARTED WITH GOOGLE MARKETPLACE APPS:

Google Marketplace Apps can be accessed from multiple operating systems and company networks with either a user or administrator login id's and password. Since the software is already available online and is mutually compatible, combining applications is much easier than with different customized software from multiple non Google Apps for Business vendors.

The Google Apps site has a helpful webpage where Google Apps Administrators can go to acclimate with the system. Some basic steps involves in getting started with Google Marketplace Apps are below:

(i)  Obtain and/or verify domain name
(ii)  Register for either the free standard or premier Google Apps
(iii) Set up Google Apps features
(iv) Login into Google Apps as Application administrator
(v)  Search for Google Marketplace Apps using Google Apps search
(vi) Customize, review and download App

Since Google Marketplace Applications can all be accessed online with a single login to Google Applications, this makes possible a virtual company intranet environment. Employees can access and update company information at any time during the day making it not only more cost effective than an in house IT system but also more flexible.

To learn additional information about how to use Google Marketplace Applications the Google Apps for Businesses, Google Apps and Google Marketplace Applications webpages can be consulted for FAQ's, video tutorials, terms of service, product and service features and more.