Apple seeks search partner, must have $20 billion
If this penalty sticks, Apple could be looking for a new suitor. Something has to be the default search provider in Safari and other Apple products.
Does something really have to replace it? Why not a menu of options? Make the user choose something. If they choose Google, great! If they choose DDG, fantastic! Whatever it is, make it a choice.
Yes something has, they need their moneyss.
Wait hasn’t DDG been the default in Safari for a few years now?
Users can choose it, but it isn’t the default
No, that’s like, the entire point of the article.
I will be honest, say there’s a new law that says on every device, users have the initial choice to select between any search engine, they’ll probably choose google anyways because most of these people have grown up that way.
Make a better alternative and people will come. Ddg is ok but it still is basically a reskinned Bing and Bing itself isn’t that good. Other search engines aren’t as polished yet either
Luckily Google is working tirelessly on making their own search product worse every year.
It honestly might already be worse
You think it is bad now? Just wait for the new and enshittified Google Search 2026.
I’m happy with Kagi. I feel like it is equal to Google in it’s prime.
Not many people want to (or can) shell out 10 $/month for a search engine. I’m not saying it’s pointless, I’m simply saying that few people would do it.
That’s why I self-host SearXNG. And have enabled several other “underdog” search engines like Mojeek and Marginalia. On my devices I’m using Redirect Web for Safari to send any search request to Ecosia (configured in my Safaris) to my SearXNG instance. Works great for me!
Sam . Mine is hosted on my RPi. Not ideal, I know, but at least it strips out tracking bits from the upstream engines.
Those same people probably have no problem paying more than that for YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. Truth is, ad-supported search will always go to shit because it’s in direct competition with its own product. It’s the same reason YouTube with ads keeps getting worse.
Because according to their perception “search” has less value than “watch”, which may make sense if one seldom really uses a search engine (i.e., they just use the same 3-4 websites).
Shit, how much is Google spending on these deals??
The google annual cost to have Google as default search on iPhone is north of 20b, hence the number in the article headline. They also pay lots to Mozilla and others.
Yup, hundreds of millions to Mozilla.
Also why if this goes through Mozilla and Firefox will both be killed instantly. They’re almost entirely funded by Google.
Mozilla could probably survive with no additional funding, but they’d have to make some steep cuts. They have many millions in investments, enough to fund something like $20M indefinitely. That’s a lot lower than their current budget, but probably reasonable if they only needed to develop Firefox.
If Google funding is pulled entirely, they’ll likely find a search deal (e.g. Bing, DDG, etc), but it’ll be a lot less in royalties. However, if you look at their financials, they’re already putting a lot of the Google money away into investments, so they can certainly survive some cuts, provided they can something in the ballpark of what Google was offering.
So assuming those are not long term deals they are probably over $30 billion now.
This is going to affect Firefox a lot more than it will affect Apple. At least Apple have options to shift money around. Firefox doesn’t.
Good! Maybe Mozilla can stop being shit and paying their CEOs tens of millions while looking for ways to enshittify Firefox.
Googles money has ruined Mozilla.
“A lack of money will prevent them from doing shitty things for money!”
I get what you’re going for, but it’s likely googles money that has slowed down the enshitification process.
Indeed. But it seems one isn’t allowed to criticize Mozilla here, so wait for downvotes or enraged replies.
