Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's director of community development, used his personal blog to urge Firefox users away from Google and to use Microsoft's search engine Bing, instead. Dotzler cited privacy concerns, specifically pointing to comments recently made by Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

"I think judgment matters," said Schmidt. "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." Dotzler then links to the Bing add-on for Firefox, stating that Bing's privacy policy is better than Google's (and notably fails to mention Yahoo at all).

Schmidt was talking about laws in the US, but the way he worded his beliefs did not sit well with privacy advocates—and a whole lot of other folks—including Dotzler. Microsoft has to respect the Patriot Act and other laws just as Google does, but after seeing Schmidt's comments, Dotzler decided that Firefox users need to be reminded of Bing's existence.

Google's philosophy is that the more open information is, the better it is for everyone, especially the search giant, which makes money by organizing said information and then displaying as relevant as possible ads beside it. Microsoft, on the other hand, while still a business that like, any other, wants to make money, has a long history of dealing with privacy concerns and regulations, so it's eager to avoid potential issues if possible. Dotzler, a 10-year-veteran at Mozilla, is saying that if you care about your privacy, remember that Bing is better than Google, at least in that department.

The troubling Google-Mozilla relationship

Dotzler's statement further adds to the unstable relationship between Google and Mozilla. Firefox has had Google as the default search engine for years, and the default Firefox Start Page homepage is really just a rebranded Google search engine webpage. Mozilla has always made sure that the Google search engine was easily accessible from Firefox.

One of the reasons for this is that the larger majority of Mozilla's revenue has always come from Google (about 97 percent). In November 2009, we noted that most of Mozilla's revenue was still being generated through search deals with Google and other popular website operators (one of the reasons why Dotzler can't simply push for Bing becoming the default search engine in Firefox). Google recently committed to extending its contract with Mozilla until 2011.

Ever since Google launched its Chrome browser in September 2008, many speculated that the relationship between the two companies would not be the same; after all, Google had started directly competing with Mozilla, despite the fact that it was funding its operations. In October 2009, Mozilla expressed its concerns about Google's Chrome Frame project, a plugin that brings Chrome's rendering engine to Internet Explorer, saying it could possibly fragment the Web. Now we have an executive reminding everyone that there is a better search engine, in terms of privacy at least, out there, and it works in Firefox.