That Time Google Offered $1 for Every Firefox Download
Back in 2005, I was trying to finish my engineering degree. I was limping along, living at home, and realizing that I was missing out on generating income as a university graduate, trying to find creative ways to supplement my income while finishing my studies.
I tried all sorts of different things like buying lots on eBay and splitting them into smaller units and reselling. Many designer ties were sold in such a fashion. I tried to scale getting paid to surf using an oscillating fan to mimic screen activity. I had even explored walnut farming.
The most promising affiliate program at the time was Google’s offer to pay to encourage people to download Firefox with the Google Toolbar plugin. This was what could be considered a second browser war. MS Internet Explorer was still a big player and MSN Search had been coming out.
Google added a search toolbar to ensure that they wouldn’t lose market share of search and ad revenue. They were open to paying $1 for every referral, which was a program similar to AdSense.
I had tried to create landing pages and websites to encourage visitors to download. I didn’t have a massive following, but hoped that by writing content about Firefox, I could direct Google traffic towards the site and ultimately encourage downloading. I even went so far as to start to run Google Ads in hope that the cost of the ads could be lower than what I’d be paid.
In the end, I abandoned the experiment and Google ultimately shut it down. They’d later release Chrome, which won over users by being lighter, faster, and more stable than the competitors.
