Although most likely just a coincidence, it had to raise a few eyebrows when on the same day a local Chinese newspaper reported Mozilla’s interest in gaining a 20% market share in China’s browser market, the nytimes runs a piece about Mozilla’s independence or lack of independence on Google; in response to a question about where funding might come from, CEO Mitchell Baker responded by saying “Google is on everyone’s mind, but it could come from China, who knows?”.

No better way to prove your independence from Google then partnering with Baidu in China. Baidu has the street credibility to really help Mozilla make inroads into China’s browser market, just like Google provided a huge boost to Mozilla in the US market. We won’t hold our breath though; despite claims of independence the Mozilla/Google relationship is very beneficial for both sides and we doubt that Mozilla would want to rock the boat.