Mozilla has a lot more leverage than you think. They could stop giving their browser away and sell an "ad-free" version for $5, which bundles Adblock and blocks google ads. Mozilla would survive, Google would be forced to drastically change. Google would be bat shit crazy to give up its leverage over Mozilla. It would be so insane that no one at Google would reasonably consider it.
While I agree with you that Mozilla would survive without Google, it wouldn't continue in its present form for long-term (more than 5 years) without a similar deal from someone else (i.e. Microsoft). And this:
> They could stop giving their browser away and sell an "ad-free" version for $5, which bundles Adblock and blocks google ads.
Simply isn't enough to make up the difference and may even end them if they tried it. Paying for free features and inferior browsers? (Yes I use Firefox but also Chrome.) What is this, 1993?
