mozilla making millions

Everyone loves Firefox, or at least everyone I know does. As an avid mac fan I tend to use safari most of the time. (Except when blogging blogger no likey safari) One of the main reasons I stopped using IE was the lack of a search box in the corner, though Microsoft have sorted that out now.

Well it seems the little Google box in the corner is proving lucrative for other reasons than attracting punters. Seems Google are paying Mozilla for each search carried out in that little box. Which apparently is totaling up to $53 million a year. Not bad business, I assume on Google's end it makes sense as people might click adsense adverts and being there stops MSN and Yahoo pinching the searches.

Can't help but raise two questions to me.

First is the new IE shipping with Vista going to point more people to Live? Lots of people when they upgrade might forget to reinstall Firefox or the Google Toolbar. Though I can't see Live stealing many of the tech savvy users back from Google, espescially in the UK, but your normal user might be swayed away from Google

Secondly are Apple pocketing some money from Safari, I imagine the number of searches or users aren't as many Firefox but its got to be a few million dollars which might come in handy...

A little off topic blog post

I know I'm getting old now, trips to the countryside seem appealing. I watch programmes about Animals that don't kill things. It's all a slippery slope really.

Perhaps thats why I'm putting up the following link to a campaign to Save Milton Country Park.
It's no where near Brighton but is just around the corner from where my girlfriends parents live, and its where we take her charming little mutt for a walkies so it'd be nice if it was still there next time we visited.

Feel free to sign up for the petition and normal service will be resumed shortly.

This is the Geek oClock News coming to you live on your Blackberry

According to NMA, it won't be long before you lucky three mobile users can be watching GeekTV live on your mobile. Of course that all depends on you being able to connect to the three network which is from what I hear not all that reliable.

It seems from the NMA article that the service is going to follow the stream model, of continous shows, which always seems srtrange to me. From the little I know about Mobile Video I thought that short-form was the way to go. Short clips work well with the short attention span needed to be watching video on the screen size of a postage stamp.



I shouldnt really complain I'm due for a mobile upgrade and are seriously contemplating switching to three for their x-series phone plan. I'm well aware of the network coverage issue but I really have the need to access wikipedia when I'm feeling too lazy to pick up my laptop.

At the moment the nokia n95 tops the list with gps and non-existant release date though that might all be swayed on the 7th

Digg Diess a deathh

In a bit of a tongue in cheek series of suggestions Wired has made up a few predictions for the following year. Some are sarcastic like Google dropping the "don't be evil" some a bit more absurb like "PaedoSpace"

One that might actually hold some water is digg going the way of friendster. I was a little bit of a late comer to the digg party, intialy I couldn't really see what it had to offer that wasn't available on fark or slashdot. Though now it seems to have reached that tipping point that you can't move in the Search Blogosphere for a piece on how to optimise for digg or how other people are gaming the system.

Apparently they aren't selling anytime soon. And there really does seem no arguing that they are top of the social "news" (inverted commas deliberate) sites at the moment, though quite whether they have the appeal or community ton cross over I'm not so sure.

As a bit of an internet geek its often easy to forget what normal people who use the net are like. My mum and my girlfriend have no idea what digg is and I can't see them warming to the flame wars or the "Top Ten Reasons why Ubuntu will stop the Apple iPhone from using digg on a ps3"

For me if any of the web 2.0 firms are going to do an eBay or Amazon they have to break out of the blokey mail geek audience and into a "normal" audience. That or find their once highly valued company a nearly ran.

If in doubt talk about the weather

Techcrunch despite its recent scrapes over the closing of the UK franchise does still occasionally throw up the good tip. Weather Bill is just such an example.

I have absolutely no idea how the business model works, which isn't hugely surprising for a web 2.0 start up, but they are offering insurance policies against bad weather. It seems more aimed for businesses than making sure you don't waste money on burgers if it tips it down.

I imagine for big events like festivals must have this kind of insurance as a mater of course but its quite an interesting idea to offer this kind of policy for smaller business. Say for example or a farmer who sells all your goods at a summer event which is rained off leaving you with a bunch of perishables that you are going to have trouble getting off your hands.

But much more exciting is the possibility it opens up for betting on the weather, which is a lot more unpredictable than the premiership.

A slightly romantic viral marketing attempt

In what I only hope is bloke attempting to become a online viral phenomena, rather that a cynical business trying to do some undercover social web marketing. A bloke is trying to raise the money online to propose to his girlfriend live in a Superbowl half time advert.

For the Brits not so familiar with the whole American Football thing you might not get the significance, the closest equivalent I can think of is getting Motty to ask on your behalf during the FA Cup.

At the moment he's no one near the amount of cash he'd need to buy the advert, but every little link helps.

So if you're an old romantic and have a bit of cash burning a hole in your pocket you might want to pay a visit.