Internet Week ran an article in which many readers reported high memory usage in Firefox 1.5.[58] Mozilla developers said the higher memory use of Firefox 1.5 is at least partially an effect of the new fast backwards-and-forwards (FastBack) feature.[59] Other known causes of memory problems are misbehaving extensions, such as Google Toolbar and some old versions of Adblock,[60] or plug-ins, such as older versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader.[61] When PC Magazine compared memory usage of Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer, they found that Firefox seemed to use only about as much memory as the other browsers.[62] Tests performed by PC World and Zimbra indicate that Firefox 2 uses less memory than Internet Explorer 7.[57][63]
Softpedia notes that Firefox takes longer to start up than other browsers,[64] which was confirmed by browser speed tests. IE also launches slightly faster than Firefox on Microsoft Windows since many of its components are built into Windows and are loaded during system startup. As a workaround for the issue, a preloader application was created that loads components of Firefox on startup, similar to Internet Explorer.[65]
[edit] Relationship with Google
The Mozilla Corporation's corporate relationship with Google[66][67] has been noted in the media, especially with regards to use of Firefox to provide revenues and data for Google. The release of the anti-phishing protection in Firefox 2 especially raised controversy.[68] Enabled by default anti-phishing protection is based on a list that is regularly (approximately each half hour) updated and downloaded to the user's computer[69] from Google's server (the user cannot change the data provider within the GUI[70] nor is informed who the default data provider is). Browser also sends Google's cookie with each request for update.[71] The "advanced" security feature of builds by the Mozilla Foundation activate an anti-phishing feature to provide live protection and, according to the Mozilla Wiki,[72] send each visited URL to Google[73] (the user must explicitly opt-in for it). Barring Internet privacy issues over such anti-phishing protection, there are concerns on how Google may use the data, even though Firefox's privacy policy states that Google may not use personal information for any purposes other than the anti-phishing protection feature.[69] On the other hand, Google admits that it "may share aggregated non-personal information with third parties outside of Google".[74]
In 2005, the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation had a combined revenue of US$52.9 million. Approximately 95 percent of this revenue[75] was related to their search engine relationships.[76]
[edit] Response from competition
Despite Firefox's gains on Internet Explorer, Microsoft's head of Australian operations, Steve Vamos, stated in late 2004 that he did not see Firefox as a threat and that there was not significant demand for the feature set of Firefox among Microsoft's users.[77]
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has used Firefox, but he has commented "so much software gets downloaded all the time, but do people actually use it?"[78] A Microsoft SEC filing on June 30, 2005 acknowledged that "competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of our Windows operating system products."[79]
Despite the cold reception from Microsoft's top management the Internet Explorer development team does have a healthy relationship with Mozilla. They meet regularly to discuss web standards such as validation certificates.[80] In 2005 Mozilla agreed to allow Microsoft to use its RSS logo in the interest of common graphical representation of the RSS feature.[81]
In August 2006, Microsoft offered to help Mozilla integrate Firefox with the then-forthcoming Windows Vista,[82] which Mozilla accepted.[83]
In October 2006, as congratulations for a successful ship of Firefox 2, the Internet Explorer 7 development team sent a cake to Mozilla.[84]
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