Is Firefox Selling Out to Google?

Gotta love the Danielster and his perpetual misinformation campaigns.

While one can (and perhaps even should) debate the merits of FF having address bar stuff connect surfers to IFL by default, here are the steps to change it:
1) Type "about:config" into the Firefox addressbar.
2) Doubleclick on the Keyword.URL thingy, and type something else there. Yahoo search, Icerocket search, ebay search, whatever.

Not exactly newbie friendly, but it's stupid and inaccurate to say "you can't turn this off."

So sorry, I was wrong about "can't turn it off." I deleted this phrase from the summary at www.scroogle.org/gscrape#ffox

Now then, maybe you can tell me what "browser.search.defaulturl" does on the about:config screen. I've tried playing with that, and I don't see it doing anything at all.

The bottom line is that the point I made is still very valid, even though the words "cannot turn it off" should not have appeared. That's because these words are completely irrelevant to my argument. Anyone who knows about "keyword.URL" in "about:config" (which even I didn't know until I read your post), already knows what the difference is between an address/location bar and a search bar. Knowing this, they put URLs in the address bar and search terms in the search bar. That turns it off too!

I'm not worried about those people. I'm worried about the ones who don't know the difference between an address bar and a search bar. Either Firefox made the "I'm feeling lucky" operate by default with the browser as downloaded, because they wanted to make Google happy, or Google asked them to do it. Either way, it's an extremely bad decision on the part of the Mozilla Foundation.

Last January, the Pew Internet and American Life Project came out with a report based on their interviews with 2,200 adults, aged 18 and older, between May 14 and June 17, 2004:

"Only 38% of users are aware of the distinction between paid or sponsored results and unpaid results. And only one in six say they can always tell which results are paid or sponsored and which are not. This finding is ironic, since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results."

Now, would you hazard to guess how many know the difference between an address bar and a search bar? Maybe 20 percent? That would mean that 80 percent do not know the difference.

If it's true that 80 percent do not know the difference, then I fail to understand how my concern over the decisions that Mozilla is making with Firefox qualify as "misinformation," "stupid," and "inaccurate."

>Either Firefox made the "I'm feeling lucky" operate by default with the browser as downloaded, because they wanted to make Google happy, or Google asked them to do it.

or perhaps they felt (mistakenly imho) that it was a nice feature to include and that the Goog 'I'm feeling lucky' was the easiest/simplest/most relevant to utilise?

Maybe someone should make an extension that would do this?

Something tells me they're probably not using Firefox if they don't know that stuff!

The whole problem with this is businesses that have spent lots of time, energy and money trying to get their sites listed are thrown another wrench in the system. Just today I found out that someone added an html page to their website with one of my website names in the page name. We have a trademark on the name, and own the website, and really do offer lifetime light bulbs (instead of only offering a 1-5 yr guarantee), but they are ranked #1 in the category. So when people type lifetime light bulbs in the address line they get his website with a forwarding page instead of www.lifetimelightbulbs.com or a chance to at least get to a search page where they can choose which site they want to go to. We already have enough headaches trying to get moved up naturally, now we have programs redirecting people to the #1 site instead of pulling up a search page. I say give people a choice, don't make the decision for them!

...(don't I always) that - given Google's recent loev for "official" websites, the IFL feature is often quite useful. I actually (and knowingly) use it from my Firefox address bar...

< long post warning, sorry >
< edit : lots deleted: now more than 50% less fat >

The thing about the IFL Search is that, although powered by Google, it is not Google *branded*, as you skip the ordinary results page totally. However, I totally agree with Nordicpure that you should display the search results page in stead:

I say give people a choice, don't make the decision for them!

Anyway, the core of the matter -- as brought up By Daniel -- is if this integration of Google and Firefox is bad for Google, Firefox, and/or the general browsing public?

Recalling that
(a) Google does employ skilled Windows developers too.
(b) Opera also got Google funding recently.
(c) Internet Explorer has an identical function, which is MSN search powered.

... it seems to be "Okay" for both Firefox and Google.

However, if I put on the "general consumer" hat, then I'm a bit more sceptical. Thing is, if I "follow the money" those coins don't seem to flow into my pockets. And the (future, potential) benefits that I may reap don't all seem like benefits to me.