Gbrowser?

[francis]

Pure speculation at the moment, but it appears as though Google are possibly thinking about launching their own browser (http://www.webstandards.org/buzz/archive/2004_09.html#a000446). Could be interesting.

[David]

Oh great - another browser :(

The balance of opinion seems to be against a Google browser but realistically, it wouldn't be too difficult for them to do it, assuming they'd start with an open source base. So, I guess that if it did appear, the rendering model would look rather like Moz; in which case it wouldn't mean yet another browser to test your code against. The worry is: what if they decide to build one from the ground up? But why on Earth would they do that? World domination calling!

[James]

You can be certain of one thing:

It will be free on the understanding that all your browsing activities are tracked and ads will be served up based on what you look at.

No thank you.

[francis]

Apple used the KHTML rendering engine from the Konqueror (http://www.konqueror.org/features/browser.php) browser rather than anything from Moz when they built Safari. Apparently they favoured the lightness of the application's code, saying that Moz was too bloated for them. As long as they create a standards compliant browser, then it's all good. Interestingly, in the last day I've read a couple of articles calling IE6 the NS4.x of today. Not that anything will happen because of it, but it's an accusation that stings.

[francis]

More on the Gbrowser possibility from the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3680942.stm)

[francis]

More speculation on GBrowser (http://mozillanews.org/?article=d376ef94c4a8368d8f9f8252f23932c3) which, if true, could prove very interesting. MS have already been trumped by Google on the desktop search (something that has long been touted for Longhorn) and ig Google do get their own browser out, hopefully IE's market share will drop considerably. Maybe then MS will start to take IE's shoddy reputation more seriously?

(Also interesting in that article is the fact the Google are developing an IM service)

[francis]

So, more evidence that Google and Firefox are in bed with each other. Install FF 1.0 (available today folks, and the site has stopped being crippled for bandwidth, so it's easily available) and this is the browser's default homepage, courtesy of Google:

http://www.websitearchitecture.co.uk/storr/forumimgs/ff1.0-start-page.gif

That's a pretty big commitment from Google - they didn't do the same when Safari was launched and I'll eat my hat if they do that when/if there's an IE7.

[David]

On the other hand, Mozilla are keeping their options open. If you look at the actual URL for the Firefox homepage it reads:

http://start.mozilla.org/firefox?client=fi...:en-US:official (http://start.mozilla.org/firefox?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official)

Presumably this is a redirect to Google. They can point it anywhere they want. The relationship is an interesting one but it's clear that Mozilla need Google more than Google need Mozilla - especially if there is a Gbrowser on the horizon.

On the other hand, it's hard to see what a Gbrowser could offer that Firefox doesn't already (appart from yet more Google ads). Ooh, just imagine - every site you browse to is accompanied by contextual ads - can't wait <_<

[James]

I agree - as per my comments in an earlier post - I expect gbrowser to serve up ads - it's the basis of Google's profits after all.

I am concerned that this will be yet another minority browser that we need to code for, unless of course they use the Mozilla rendering engine in which case no problem for web designers.

[francis]

VERY interesting! (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-1455991,00.html) Also: 20 million downloads since 9 November 2004 (http://www.spreadfirefox.com/). Nice!

[Tom]

I had a look at MSN search, so see if Francis was damning it out of habit, and searched on the garden history related searches I expect to do well on. Result: I was off the screen on all of them. Conclusion: Francis is right. Problem: I wonder what MSN are doing differnt (I never see much difference between the Google and Yahoo returns). My guess is that they giving less weight to other people's directories (ODP + Yahoo). Does anyone know if MSN are still getting directory results from Overture - that would explain the search rankings and also the odd results in MSN Image Search (I saw the same image come up 7 times on one page of returns).

[francis]

Ooooh, interesting! (http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2005/04/scoop_google_br.php) Could the rumours be true and is there an announcement due in the next few weeks/months or is it just a screwy agent as some of the comments seem to suggest?