I thought this insight was worth repeating....

Quote
Firefox is not competition, it's an advertising channel. Searches from Firefox users account for probably $5-10 billion a year in ad revenue based on Firefox's market share.

Chrome only exists to keep people using the web and keep them searching on Google; it's insurance against Microsoft and Apple. The long-term threats to Google are app ecosystems like iOS and Windows 8 Metro where people consume all their content through native apps obtained through stores controlled by Google's competitors. All their non-search products (browsers, phones, chromebooks, gmail, their office apps) exist to maintain demand for access to the open web over these curated native experiences... because Google needs people to use the web or they won't be searching (and viewing Google ads) as much.

Strong signal in an otherwise noisy thread....
http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/qh36t/til_that_google_pays_300_million_annually_to/

I feel stupid to have forgotten Firefox was funded by Google.  And I think my head just exploded with that first sentence.

Firefox uses Google to seed its "unsafe websites" SQLite DB. IIRC firefox contacts google once a day to update this list. Nice security tool but yet another way for Google to evaluate user activity.