[tor-talk] Google as default search engine revisited

[Andrew Lewman]

On Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:26:38 +0100
"5p4m at gmx.de" <5p4m at gmx.de> wrote:
> 1. Why is Google the default search engine in the TOR browser bundle?

Because it's the default engine in firefox. We use the firefox source
code as the base of Tor Browser. Also, the majority of users want
google as their default engine due to the quality of search results. The
secondary default for search engines is DuckDuckGo if Google prompts
for a captcha. 

> 2. Does TOR get money from Google
>   a) for using Google as the default search engine?
>   b) in general?

We get zero money from Google for search. 

The only Google money we get is roughly $3000 from
Google Summer of Code for every year we're accepted. Tor/EFF GSoC
students get a separate stipend if accepted, directly from Google.

Instead of theorizing about Tor's funding, look at it directly,
https://www.torproject.org/about/financials.html.en. All non-profit,
501c3 organizations in the US are required to disclose their
financials. 

If someone tells you they "acquired" tor's financials, it
means they downloaded it off our page or asked us for them directly.
For a bonus, Tor publishes everything about our financials, including
the optional documents such as our audit results and State of
Massachusetts filings.  They are a year behind generally, because it
takes 6-8 months for the auditors to get through everything to their
satisfaction. We expect our 2011 financial statements to be released in
July or August of 2012.

-- 
Andrew
http://tpo.is/contact
pgp 0x74ED336B