It’s no secret, I love Firefox, Mozilla’s web browser. It’s a browser steeped in internet history, tracing its roots all the way back to Netscape Navigator. Initially a favorite due to customization capabilities, today its users love it for its privacy, wide choices of add-ons, and endless personalization. The browser even has a built-in theming option, so you can get it to look unique to you.
Mozilla has kept Firefox at the forefront of privacy technologies. With tab containers, cookie encapsulation, and built-in privacy focused DNS routing, Firefox has features that protect your privacy that no other browsers—outside of complicated Tor browsers—match. All in a package that makes it light on resources, fast, and colorful… if you like colors.
However, despite this amazing, unmatched feature set, Firefox usage is waning. Google Chrome is the king of the desktop, an app that potentially comes with Google’s oversight. Google may be the largest violator of your privacy, and, with their share of the market, they’re able to aggregate mountains of data. Ironically, Google may be helping keep Firefox afloat, but that protection may soon run out.
In This Article:
The Fall of the Fox
In 2008, Firefox was the browser of choice for 20% of the web. Now? Less than 4% of people use Firefox. In the span of under 15 years, Firefox lost around 30 million users. The most apparent cause for this? Chrome. Google Chrome came out in 2008. The new browser was excessively fast due to its usage of their WebKit-based Blink engine. Google would also add their own enhancements using their search engine to optimize results and cached pages. Google used a lot of memory, which lead some back to Firefox when Mozilla released their latest version. However, Chrome users continued to grow, as Firefox would shrink.
In 2020, Mozilla hit employees with two rounds of layoffs. Engineers, already feeling thinly spread as Mozilla diversified their products, found themselves working on more tasks, making less progress on each one. Browser-breaking bugs would sit in the iOS backlog for weeks or months. More users left.
Workplaces have been pushing Chrome on employees. Despite questions around privacy, many workplaces are automatically installing Chrome on users’ new computers. With Android devices and many workplaces setting Chrome as the default browser, many others would make the switch on their personal machines.
Eventually, Chrome took over the browser business, with Safari owning a wide majority of the iOS traffic. Firefox and others sort of just faded into the background. First party browsers, like those from Google, Apple, and Microsoft, just crushed free, independent third party browsers like Firefox.
Support from Google in Question
Google, that is, Alphabet, helps keep Firefox afloat. The gigantic brand doesn’t just cover things like Android, Maps, and other services. They got their start with Search. To become the search giant that they are today, Google did a few clever things. They made their homepage simple, a search bar, making it load quickly in the slow internet days. They tuned their search algorithm extensively, seeking to give answers, not pages of results. And, they paid their way up. By becoming the default search engine on a number of platforms, Google was able to become synonymous with search.
Google is the default search engine on Firefox, a deal that brings Mozilla hundreds of millions. Firefox has many other options, including search engines like DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine with results skewed by its user base (not always for the better), and Ecosia, a favorite of mine, a search engine that plants trees. However, Google is the default.
In 2020, Google once again agreed to buy this important marketing space. However, with Firefox’s numbers dwindling, about 1% of the total browser market share since they made that deal, Google may not feel so compelled to make the same deal again. In 2023, they’ll get to decide if they want to continue paying to be the default on Firefox. They may choose not to.
A twist of fate means Google is reliant on Firefox though. As one of the few remaining third party browsers, Firefox exists to prove that the others have not created a complete monopoly on their devices. Without Firefox, legislators could go after companies for propping up their own browsers over the competition. It happened to Microsoft in Europe, where the software giant now has to give users the option to download a different browser when setting up their PC. If this happens, Chrome’s position at the top could come into jeopardy. The same goes for Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s Edge.
The Web Needs Firefox
This isn’t just about browsers. However, other browsers have massive faults. Google Chrome is owned by the infamous tracking company, and has had more controversies than I can count. Safari is only available on iOS and macOS, with no syncing with other devices. Edge is Microsoft’s replacement for Internet Explorer, and still has some sketchy behavior, like pushing users towards using it with popups when they try to install new browsers and setting it as default after Windows updates. Brave is managed by an unrepentant homophobe who rallied against COVID-19 countermeasures. It also has had its own controversies, like including affiliate links for the company in search results, tracking users for better ad targeting, and hijacking ad space on publisher’s websites.
However, we need Firefox because we need a browser like Firefox. Firefox focuses on privacy and personalization. It’s the most consumer-friendly privacy-focused browser. There are no ulterior motives, no tracking, just a browser that lets you customize your view of the web and protect your data from companies like Facebook and Google.
Mozilla, Too
Mozilla needs Firefox and we need Mozilla. They have stood up for web standards, privacy online, and safety and security, online and offline. After groups on Facebook and Parler were permitted to plan the January 6th insurrection, Mozilla spoke out against the violence on these platforms. As disinformation spread, Mozilla asked Facebook and Twitter to better handle misinformation. Mozilla is even studying YouTube’s recommendations, which frequently guide users down dark paths, “redpilling” them into the alt-right.
Mozilla’s one of the few companies standing up for web security and privacy. That’s exceedingly rare, unfortunately. It’s exactly why the web needs Mozilla.
Save the Fox
This cute little test pilot used to greet beta Firefox users. How could you say no to that face?
Firefox is fast, efficient, secure, and endlessly customizable. Plus, just by existing, it helps keep the web safer. There are many tools to make switching to Firefox from other browsers easy, including moving your bookmarks over. And you can sync those bookmarks across all of your devices. It’s pretty awesome, you could switch to it.
If you want to help more, you could consider donating to Mozilla. They send you a nice thank you message in your email every month (guess how I know!). You could also check out Mozilla’s other products. Mozilla purchased Pocket, one of my favorite apps ever. It allows you to save websites. Yes, kind of like bookmarks, but tagged, sorted, and with ad-free reader views. You can create a reading list full of easy to read articles, complete with an audio version of your websites, if you don’t have time to read. All of those long articles you don’t have the time for can become podcasts with Pocket. Mozilla also has a VPN service, as well as a great email relay service so you can protect your email address.
The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization to support open source projects at Mozilla and guide internet standards. Mozilla is as old as the modern web, in fact, they shaped the modern web. If they’re allowed to continue doing so, it could become a more open, more secure, more private, and more accessible place.