how do companies profit from web browsers?

[Raval]

I was wondering how companies like Microsoft and Mozilla profit from their respective web browsers.

[bruce89]

Mozilla get paid millions from Google.

Each time someone uses the wee google search bar, the Mozilla Corperation gets a bit of cash.

[Paqman]

Mozilla get paid millions from Google.

Each time someone uses the wee google search bar, the Mozilla Corperation gets a bit of cash.

They've got to be getting paid for setting the default Firefox homepage to Google, too.

[aysiu]

Microsoft makes money because some websites require people to use Internet Explorer, and so those people get stuck using Windows (either natively, as a dual boot, or through Parallels or VirtualBox).

Yes, there are things like User Agent Switcher and IEs4Linux, but most people don't know about those and there are some sites that don't work even with those tools available.