For the next two years a partnership between RealNetworks and Mozilla will mean that users downloading RealPlayer, Rhapsody and other Real software will also receive the Firefox browser. The announcement late last night said that a partnership to distribute the Google Toolbar has also been formalized.
This is great news for Firefox. Real says it sees more than 2 million downloads of its software each day, though it’s not clear how many of those are of software that will now include Firefox.
Real has long been criticized for letting more obnoxious software piggyback along with its software in downloads, but this seems like a great move. Though Firefox now has a 16% marketshare in the US, and higher elsewhere, I’m sure there is still a world of people who have never heard of it or who don’t know how to get it.
Partnerships are a great way to extend market share, so long as they are done carefully. Software made easily available after the purchase of hardware seems far less coercive than some forms of partnership, including the controversial “bug” found in Google Toolbar for IE yesterday – which blocks users from changing their default search away from Google.
The Real/Firefox partnership looks great though, I imagine it will really help extend the use of Firefox. Update: Some readers are saying that this is a bad move, that downloading one program means they only want one program downloaded – and that makes sense too. This could end up backfiring for Firefox with its most discerning customers, who are also its boosters. Is FF abandoning its honest word of mouth marketing approach via loyal early adopters and moving towards a creepier method of extending market share? Tough call.
I thought it was “Mozilla” not “Mozzilla”. It’s great news, since IE is being very nasty to play with in css.
Yeah, typo caught, and aint that the truth on css.
>Though Firefox now has a 16% marketshare in the US, and higher elsewhere …
Note that its 4% in Japan.
Yeah, you have to add special ‘IE hacks’ in the stylesheet so it works in IE6 and below. I believe there are still some things that IE7 doesn’t support.
Great idea on the part of Real. I downloaded their player for OS X this morning, it came alone. Actually, it didn’t even mount, just dropped the Real .app on my desktop.
Interesting that you should put the word bug in inverted commas. I doubt Google would break their “do no evil” vow so easily.
Could you please start putting alt’s on your images?
I stopped using Real products several years ago when they began infesting computers with all manner of spyware, bugs, auto-loading daemons and other crap. I still go out of my way to avoid the rm format whenever possible.
If they’ve changes their ways then that is good, but they alienated so many people in years past that it is probably too late. If I was Mozilla I would be very hesitant about aligning myself with this purveyor of dirty tricks.
As for IE7, unless something has changed MS will not support SVG, xForms or other standards. They are pushing their proprietary XAML stuff, which although it is good technology is NOT a standard and hence “Web 2.0″ will be severely undermined before it really gets going.
Microsoft is the single largest threat to innovation on the web today.
I dont like this at all.
Firefox is great, but if it starts playing these games then it will be no better than IE.
Mind Booster Noori, totally reasonable request – I will try to make that a habit.
My core browser if Firefox yet I don’t see why this is great news. From a user’s point of view ANY bundling is crap. If I want Real, that’s all I expect, nothing else.
(Actually, for years now I have Real on my “ban” list for similar reasons).
Will be interesting to see if Real begins to use the Mozilla rendering engine rather than the IE engine. Currently both the Real Player and Rhapsody use the IE engine.
Do you really mean to say that Real gets 2M downloads per DAY? That seems improbably high. Might that be 2M downloads per year? I could believe that. Or 2M real streams are served each day?
I agree with Zoli! I use and advocate Firefox, but the last thing I want to see is a user claiming that they downloaded RealPlayer and Firefox suddenly took over their computer. Bundling Google Toolbar in a browser is way different than bundling a browser with a media player. This is not good for users and not good for Mozilla. Firefox’s value proposition is about choice and quality, both of which are bypassed when the user is not consciously choosing to switch.
Firefox’ most discerning users – the most loyal supporters – will not be put off by this move. If anything, Real Networks loyalists, if they exist, would be upset. Firefox users can always download the browser separately from the Mozilla site. So this partnership does not impose on consumers.
In a lot of cases, these ‘other’ downloads may be opt-in or opt-out, instead of a forced download, depending on the style and concerns of the software publisher.
I would not be surprised for it to be an opt-out (i.e. uncheck the check box) at some point furing the install wizard.
I think it’s good to users as well all of them. Why Netscape defeated IE? In result, there was a lack of distribution channel rather than IE. (MS used exclusive distribution channel.) Although a software is really good, it must meet users. All of them i.e. Google Toolbar, Real Player, Firefox are good things. So it helps users too.
So Google’s controversial “bug”…
Another nice example of Techcrunch’s googlephobie, once again…
I can think of better bedfellows for Firefox than Real Networks. It makes me nervous when I see “Real” and “toolbar” in the same sentence. Oh no, not again.
Like Real isn’t already full of enough bloatware.
This makes me loose respect for Firefox. I didn’t think they needed to force themselves on users like this.
I really despise this bundling stuff. For example, I don’t like it when Adobe tried to force Yahoo toolbar down my throat just to install their damn pdf reader. And it seems that every other piece of downloadable software tries to shove Google desktop or toolbar down your throat. I uninstalled all Google ware from my computer because I wasn’t using it. So I don’t want to have to make sure to uncheck the “Install Google bloat” checkbox everytime I download software. Now, whole browsers are being bundled? Uggh.
It is annoying – real player is compulsory for the BBC’s online radio show, so I install it, and then spend ages removing all the crap that comes with it.
Don’t get me wrong, Firefox is my main browser, but I would prefer to choose what I download. An option would be fine, but not a bundling.
I agree that bundled software is more than an annoyance. In fact, it represents a larger trend of marketers cramming adverts down our gullets through every conceivable medium (and creating new ones to fill any potential voids). Maybe consumers are at fault for feeding the frenzy.
It seems like ownership of one’s desktop (more like process resources) is being chiseled away – and being replaced with corporate sponsorship (like t-shirts…can I just get one without the corporate logo?)
I recently uninstalled my McAffee suite (which I paid for) because it started popping up adverts. They’re on my permanent (no-install) shit-list, along with Real and a few dozen others that have abused my trust over the years.
I’m pretty surprised (naive, maybe?) that Moz has decided to partner with a fairly notorious offender, and a little disappointed. As a web developer, there’s nothing I like more than to see it become more popular, but this seems a bit like a compromise of cultural value.
Well, I guess I won’t be downloading anything from Real. I’ll just wait for the file, instead of this bundle, to get posted. I already have 11 browsers installed. I’ve tried Firefox, and I don’t like it. The only form in which it remains on my computer is as part of TorPark. Beyond that, I’d never use it, because it’s inferior to Opera, K-Meleon, and the other browsers I use. If I wanted to download Firefox, I’d do so on my own. Now this makes me more inclined to view Firefox with disdain.
Given that :
Microsoft bundles IE with just about every PC,
Apple bundles Safari with every Mac
and Opera get bundled with many mobile and small devices
I figure what Mozilla is doing here is fair play in order to keep competition in the browser market place.
I just hope they implement it well so there is Opt out or intelligent instalation.
The last thing anybody needs is a browser monoculture again.
Kudos on adding the update – reading the first several paragraphs of your post I was thinking “why does he think this is such a good thing???!!’. Not only is it a bit of creepy marketing-work, Real products have never been worth installing (EXCEPT RHAPSODY – which of course Real didn’t create, they purchased). I’d rather Firefox associate itself with quality software.
Because of bundling, I will NEVER uses Real again. Firefox getting into bed with them is just disgusting. Almost as disgusting as Apple now bundling iTunes with QuickTiime. I’m on a Mac, so I love both of these. However, for my family, I support PCs and can’t stand that iTunes is forced down my throat for my family to watch my kid’s QuickTime videos. Firefox – be careful. This could backfire.
What happens if you already have Firefox? This idea doesn’t seem to be very good at all and all it does is increase the download size – not so good news for dial-up users. Firefox is so good it doesn’t this kind of help from Real.
Hope they will review it and not pig back Firefox.
I agree, Firefox is a great browser, but bundling it with Real software is like partnering up with the devil! Real Player is one of the most invasive pieces of rubbish around, and there are so many good alternatives for playing real audio files that there’s no need to put up with it any more.
Real Software loads full of shit and did not expect Firefox partnering with them. It really sucks
As long as Firefox doesn’t bundle RealPlayer in it’s installer, then I think this is a good idea. It would be nice for Real to start offering something useful in thier extreme bloatware package.
Of course it’s good to get more Firefox users .
But I have to agree with people who are sceptic. Personally I hate when I have to download something I don’t want. If I chose to download a piece of software it’s because I want that software, and nothing else – if I need anything else I can get it myself…
And then, as someone else mentioned, if you already have FF it’s even more a waste of bandwidth…
I would say thats a great move by Real, coz the amount of hits both of these getting daily is great. Firefox being far better then any other browser esp(IE)
will definitely add to the success of Real.
You won’t get RealPlayer with Firefox – You will get Firefox with RealPlayer…
RealPlayer even gets dissed by CNET, listen to the ‘iPod monopoly, Now with iPhone!’ podcast at bol.cnet.com (MP3 link, at about 13:36 they comment on this story, and it’s pretty obvious that according to them RealPlayer is not a great piece of software
haha
I love Firefox too but bundling like this is crap !
If Firefox is better then IE (and it is) it will win fairly… I hate thinking that Firefox is going to annoy some folks who only want to download Real stuff.
NO WAY!
This has got to be a hoax, RealPlayer is the laughing stock of the geek world.
This is bad news…
Hate Real Player and all the crap that it installs…all the bloat…all the force advertisements…but you need it for bbc radio or other websites? What to do. Go to http://www.free-codecs.com and download the real alternative (latest release 1.49 or above). First remove Real Player and then install this after real player has been removed. Now with Firefox or IE go to your favorite website that forces rm media down you throat. Guess what… it will work now without that bloated mega size dinosuar!!!
ROAR!!!