Will Success, or All That Money From Google, Spoil Firefox? from the New York Times asks if all the money Google is feeding Firefox going to hurt the browser and the community behind the browser in the future, by aligning the browser too closely with Google and its war against Microsoft.

Of the $66 million in revenue reported by Mozilla, 85 percent of that came from Google. But Mozilla said they made sure Google “understood the separation between a search relationship and the rest of our activities.” That may suggest that Mozilla is aware of why Google may want them to overtake Microsoft’s claim over the browser market.

See Google: As Open As It Wants To Be (i.e., When It’s Convenient) for some links and background on Google’s deal to be the default in Firefox in most countries (in several Asia countries, it’s Yahoo).

Related Topics: Google: Business Issues | Google: Partnerships | Microsoft: Internet Explorer | Toolbars & Add-Ons: Firefox Browser

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz