The web is one of the most important inventions of the modern era, fueling the growth of the internet and changing the way many of us live, work, learn, and play. It’s a technical marvel both for what it enables us to do and the way it’s built - collaboratively and in the open. It wasn’t always this way, but today’s web is a testament to the power of open standards and open source.
In fact, it was open source, open standards, and healthy competition that pulled the web out of the dark days of the 2000s and into the innovative bonanza of the 2010s when Google Chrome, heavily influenced by Firefox, started gaining mainstream momentum.
Today, every major browser engine is open source, which is wonderful, but there’s still one issue: they’re all funded by Google’s advertising empire. Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, and Opera all use Google’s Chromium. Apple receives billions to make Google the default search engine in Safari, and Firefox has a similar deal where they receive hundreds of millions each year.
The web is too essential to have one primary source of funding, and too important to have that source of funding be advertising.
Many people say that it’s impossible to build a new browser and that you could never unseat Google Chrome. Well, you don’t have to unseat Google Chrome to make a difference - Firefox is proof of that. Firefox has never been the most popular browser, but it has majorly influenced every popular browser and made the web a better place.
As for whether you can build a new browser… it’s already happening.
That’s why I believe that Ladybird, a new browser written completely from scratch, and the Ladybird Browser Initiative, a nonprofit funded exclusively by donations whose sole purpose is the development of the Ladybird browser, can make a difference.
The world needs a browser that puts people first, contributes to open standards using a brand new engine, and is free from advertising’s influence.
This is why I’ve co-founded the Ladybird Browser Initiative with Andreas and my family has pledged $1M to support Ladybird’s development. I believe in Ladybird and I believe in Andreas’ vision, and I hope you’ll help us support an open, independent browser that supports you.
Chris Wanstrath
GitHub Founder & former CEO