Jeremy notes that Firefox made out like a bandit ($72 million) in its deal with Google, which is true. Other things that are true:
– This is an unusual deal. No one else has Firefox reach (besides folks like Ask and AOL). This is Google paying Firefox for distribution, pure and simple.
– Yahoo is taking entirely too long to have an AdSense competitor. Come on, folks, get it outta early beta. We’re eager. And, by the way, Microsoft, what’s up with you guys? Have you done the math and decided to forego syndication?
– Google expects AdSense margins to be squeezed (WSJ).
– That’s not stopping Ask, though it’d be nice to see more…
Folks,
This is why many people think the search battle is really the desktop battle.
Browsers, toolbars, OEM deals and other distribution efforts are going to be critical to the future for these firms.
yeah but invalid URLs in FF spawned the SERP towards MSFT
But .. I have not fact checked this..but i think it matters !!