How Important is Firefox in the Battle for Search Market Share?

Chitika has provided some very interesting search market-related findings. According to the firm, Firefox is responsible for a significant amount of Google's share. In fact, based on the sample looked at, there were more Firefox-based Google searches than total searches from Bing or Yahoo.

It's important to note that this isn't representative of the entire search market, but it's an interesting finding that may indeed have bigger implications in that market.

"The next big shift in the search engine wars may come in 2011, when Mozilla's contract setting Google as the default browser in their popular Firefox browser comes to an end," says Chitika's Daniel Ruby. "Based on a sample of over 14 million impressions across the Chitika advertising network, Firefox currently holds the keys to 9.17% of the search market – more than any one company except Google itself."


Of course Bing and Yahoo combined will account for more than Google's Firefox share. If that means anything.

"Of the sample pulled by Chitika Research for the purposes of this study, Firefox drove 23% of all traffic to the network," says Ruby. "Of Firefox's search traffic, 91.45% came from Google, and 39.87% specifically from the Firefox start page and embedded Google search bar."

He also speculates that we'll see "a massive bidding war" when Mozilla's contract with Google gets closer to the end. I guess we'll see who wants it most. Of course meanwhile, Google will be heavily pushing Chrome, trying to get some of those Firefox users themselves into their own browser.

Facebook Seeks Head Of Games Partnerships

The rate at which Facebook seals game-related deals may soon increase. The social network's current gaming partners may soon grow happier, too. That's because Facebook's attempting to hire a "Head of Games Partnerships," and those will be among his (or her) top priorities.

The official job description begins, "Facebook is seeking a leader for our Strategic Partner Development team to build and manage a high performance team, develop and enhance successful partnerships and influence internal and external partners and industry stakeholders in the Gaming industry."

Some kid who uses Facebook and has devoted countless hours of his life to playing FarmVille won't cut it, either. The company wants a businessperson with a degree (preferably an MBA) and at least ten years of experience, plus all sorts of management skills.

This signals that Facebook is getting very serious about games. The job description even hints that its gaming unit will have the power to influence the whole organization, stating, "You should be as comfortable pitching and negotiating deals with partners as working cross-functionally with colleagues in Product, Engineering, Sales, Operations, Finance, Marketing, and Legal to create new social experiences that meet the strategic objectives of partners and Facebook."

It should be interesting to see who Facebook finds to fill this role. And how quickly Facebook fills it, since that could reveal more about how much the company values gaming.