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Jan. 26th, 2005 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tsukikagegoogle hires Firefox lead developer
1/24/2005 5:02:33 PM, by Ken "Caesar" Fisher
Remember all of the speculation from a few months back that Google may be looking at getting into the browser market? Well, there's new grist for the rumor mill, as Google has hired a lead developer of Firefox. Ben Goodger has been intimately involved with many facets of FireFox since its inception, and also worked previously on Netscape back in the more productive days of the AOL/Netscape cabal. Despite taking his check from Google, Goodger still plans to continue his work with the Mozilla team. A posting to his blog broke the news.
As of January 10, 2005, my source of income changed from The Mozilla Foundation to Google, Inc. of Mountain View, California. My role with Firefox and the Mozilla project will remain largely unchanged, I will continue doing much the same work as I have described above - with the new goal of successful 1.1, 1.5 and 2.0 releases. I remain devoted full-time to the advancement of Firefox, the Mozilla platform and web browsing in general.
From this statement, it sounds as if Goodger will continue his focus on Firefox. Why, then, hire him? There's the distinct possibility that Goodger is just a smart, talented guy, and Google likes to hire smart, talented people. There's also the possibility that his expertise is of special interest to the Google, but that need not be necessarily related to ambitions to create a whole new browser. In fact, Goodger's move to Google seems like a clear sign that Google isn't interested in re-inventing the wheel with another browser, because it would be difficult to imagine Goodger taking employment somewhere that was planning to develop a Firefox competitor. Rather, we suspect that there's something else afoot.
For one, Google may be looking for someone with expertise building applications around the Gecko, the Mozilla HTML renderer, and XUL, the XML user interface language. The latter is particularly interesting, because XUL is a platform independent user interface solution. Currently much of Google's "UI" in their products is a combination of HTML, and Google's own proprietary software. For example, consider such applications as the Desktop Search and the Google Deskbar. Both could be written to use, e.g., gecko for HTML rendering and XUL for interface design, and be considerably more portable than they are now. Or, in the case of the Desktop Search, a much spiffier UI could be developed that would be platform independent.
A platform independent UI is an appealing thing for existing tools, but it also has great potential for more complex software operations. At the risk of seeming out of my mind, perhaps there will be a Gbrowser after all. You may recall that the original Google web browser speculation started when it was learned that the word "gbrowser" shows up in a few of Google's recent applications. However, what if Gbrowser isn't a web browser at all, but a kind of search-centric data browser? That could be nifty.
Or, Google may just be paying Goodger's wages so that he can keep working on Firefox, and offer some special insight every now and again for Google's own efforts. Perhaps one day we'll see an official Google Toolbar for Firefox (there are a handful of unofficial ones available now). One thing is certain: Google isn't going to tell us anything earlier than necessary.
So, I've been watching to much Iron Chef lately. Last night I was watching Battle Homard Lobster [EDIT: Iron Chef Sakai vs. Shimizu Tadaaki] in the Riverbend Club Room (damn, that made me hungry), and then I got Pat to download a bunch of it off the hub (including one episode of Iron Chef America). So, being all incredibly Iron Chef-ified, I decided to become an Iron Chef-ess! I scrambled four eggs with half a yellow onion and two garlic cloves, adding some soy sauce at the end, and mixed that with steamed white rice (about 2 parts "scrambled egg" to 3 parts rice). If this were Battle Egg, I'd definitely be docked points for not being able to taste the egg. ^_^;
Now I shall go feed Sashimi and watch some more... stuff.
1/24/2005 5:02:33 PM, by Ken "Caesar" Fisher
Remember all of the speculation from a few months back that Google may be looking at getting into the browser market? Well, there's new grist for the rumor mill, as Google has hired a lead developer of Firefox. Ben Goodger has been intimately involved with many facets of FireFox since its inception, and also worked previously on Netscape back in the more productive days of the AOL/Netscape cabal. Despite taking his check from Google, Goodger still plans to continue his work with the Mozilla team. A posting to his blog broke the news.
As of January 10, 2005, my source of income changed from The Mozilla Foundation to Google, Inc. of Mountain View, California. My role with Firefox and the Mozilla project will remain largely unchanged, I will continue doing much the same work as I have described above - with the new goal of successful 1.1, 1.5 and 2.0 releases. I remain devoted full-time to the advancement of Firefox, the Mozilla platform and web browsing in general.
From this statement, it sounds as if Goodger will continue his focus on Firefox. Why, then, hire him? There's the distinct possibility that Goodger is just a smart, talented guy, and Google likes to hire smart, talented people. There's also the possibility that his expertise is of special interest to the Google, but that need not be necessarily related to ambitions to create a whole new browser. In fact, Goodger's move to Google seems like a clear sign that Google isn't interested in re-inventing the wheel with another browser, because it would be difficult to imagine Goodger taking employment somewhere that was planning to develop a Firefox competitor. Rather, we suspect that there's something else afoot.
For one, Google may be looking for someone with expertise building applications around the Gecko, the Mozilla HTML renderer, and XUL, the XML user interface language. The latter is particularly interesting, because XUL is a platform independent user interface solution. Currently much of Google's "UI" in their products is a combination of HTML, and Google's own proprietary software. For example, consider such applications as the Desktop Search and the Google Deskbar. Both could be written to use, e.g., gecko for HTML rendering and XUL for interface design, and be considerably more portable than they are now. Or, in the case of the Desktop Search, a much spiffier UI could be developed that would be platform independent.
A platform independent UI is an appealing thing for existing tools, but it also has great potential for more complex software operations. At the risk of seeming out of my mind, perhaps there will be a Gbrowser after all. You may recall that the original Google web browser speculation started when it was learned that the word "gbrowser" shows up in a few of Google's recent applications. However, what if Gbrowser isn't a web browser at all, but a kind of search-centric data browser? That could be nifty.
Or, Google may just be paying Goodger's wages so that he can keep working on Firefox, and offer some special insight every now and again for Google's own efforts. Perhaps one day we'll see an official Google Toolbar for Firefox (there are a handful of unofficial ones available now). One thing is certain: Google isn't going to tell us anything earlier than necessary.
So, I've been watching to much Iron Chef lately. Last night I was watching Battle Homard Lobster [EDIT: Iron Chef Sakai vs. Shimizu Tadaaki] in the Riverbend Club Room (damn, that made me hungry), and then I got Pat to download a bunch of it off the hub (including one episode of Iron Chef America). So, being all incredibly Iron Chef-ified, I decided to become an Iron Chef-ess! I scrambled four eggs with half a yellow onion and two garlic cloves, adding some soy sauce at the end, and mixed that with steamed white rice (about 2 parts "scrambled egg" to 3 parts rice). If this were Battle Egg, I'd definitely be docked points for not being able to taste the egg. ^_^;
Now I shall go feed Sashimi and watch some more... stuff.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 10:14 pm (UTC)You do realize in doing so that you violated copyright law, don't u? ;-)
(not that I care)
BTW, I had no idea you cared about stuff like this (it's right up my alley). U get kewler by the minute. LOL :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-27 06:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-27 06:38 am (UTC)