Thread · 4 tweets · 14 Feb 2022

That's a great question and it's key to the solution. Indeed, I don't think it matters if Apple loses $15bn a year, but it sucks a whole lot if Firefox can't get paid. So we can't just force choice: we need a plan. Complex for Twitter, but...

Paying browsers from search revenue makes sense: the products are complementary (in fact search would be better if browsers controlled the UI). But instead of paying for the default, it's rev share per hit.

Both browsers and search engines enter a registry, which they can only do by agreeing to specific terms. Browsers not in registry can't be paid; engines not in registry can't appear in the list of proposed engines in the choice dialog offered by the browser.

The choice dialog has to be designed independently and standardised. It needs to feature some info that people can't easily note from usage, notably about privacy. I think that's the tldr, there are details to sort out from that of course (lots).