4 ms·

I somewhat agree with you - but the question is, why did the Google Engineers sit down to make the Browser of Future? - especially when they already have well-f

I somewhat agree with you - but the question is, why did the Google Engineers sit down to make the Browser of Future? - especially when they already have well-forged relationships with Mozilla and Opera? Clearly they wanted to do something else - they wanted a new tool for the job - something they felt they couldn't or didn't want to do with Mozilla. Page refers to some reasons (which you may or may not agree with). I think that's what the article is trying to get at.

mechanical_fish 18y ago
I'll grant you that the article is mainly about "why Chrome?" rather than "why not Firefox?". In other words, though the title is not 100% linkbait, it does have a very high linkbait factor. But even the question "why Chrome?" isn't answered well. Here's the Larry Page answer that you refer to: Page said that the monetary benefits Google will gain from Chrome will come from the better and cheaper-to-develop web apps that its engineers can build using a better browser, as well as increased user loyalty and freed-up user time so they can search more. The meat of that response is the part about "a better browser" -- it's certainly the only part of the sentence that relates to the "why not Firefox?" question, since Google is more than capable of releasing a Google-cobranded Firefox. But what does "a better browser" mean? To answer that requires getting into details like "here's how the codebases are different", or "here's how the project management and release scheduling is different", or "here's how the overall goals of each project are different", or maybe even "here's the real political situation with Firefox vis-a-vis Chrome". But we don't get any discussion of such things. We get some warmed-over press conferences and PR-quality quotes from Larry Page.
- jwilliams 18y ago
  Yeah I agree - factors over the decision are unclear, and not made clear at all from those quotes. Google really want access to more of your data (to give you better data it's true) - and they need to control the experience to do that... I can't imagine any other reason for Google's moves at the moment.
menloparkbum 18y ago
why did the Google Engineers sit down to make the Browser of Future? I've spent 2 years of my working life with the Mozilla codebase. Also, 3 very close friends work at Google, and I must know at least 25 people who work there. My take is that mechanical_fish is completely correct. There was no secret strategic reason for doing this. Some engineers at Google simply wanted to make a better browser, and decided that the Mozilla codebase was too huge and crufty to deal with. Not a day went by working with the Mozilla codebase that I didn't think I could make a better browser from scratch, if only I had enough time and all my smart hacker friends wanted to pitch in and help me out. Google is probably still the most "bottom up" out of any of the huge firms out there, and they have "20% time" and all the personnel needed to make this happen. Once the guys got somewhere on their skunkworks version, the higher-ups probably thought "oh cool... another browser, we should put that out there. And hey, as a bonus maybe we don't have to keep dealing with the Mozilla foundation" Personally, I'm jealous because they basically implemented everything I thought sucked in Firefox. I had no idea Google had this up their sleeve (very impressed that my Google friends kept this a secret from me; yes, they knew about it), so until September 2 I had a minor dream that maybe someday I could spearhead the next killer browser. Unfortunately I spend too much time at my day job and on hacker news. Execution is everything folks, get to work! Of course I could be wrong and this started out as a sinister plot to own all your data and give the finger to the Mozilla foundation, but I really doubt it.
- jwilliams 18y ago
  I don't have the experience you have, so I have to side with you on that basis alone. I don't find Google's moves sinister - they want to provide a better user experience in order to be a better (and more successful) business. Google's strategy has always been one that works symbiotically... If they think more of my data is going to help them do that, well, then they might be right... and they might be right that most people will be happy with this. I don't buy that this is a skunkworks project though - there are a lot of key individuals contributing to this. Putting out a browser like this is a pretty serious undertaking. It'll take a lot of resources to maintain, and carries the Google brand in an extremely public way. So whilst the origins might be up for argument, I think this is a very deliberate and strategic move on Google's part.

mechanical_fish 18y ago

I'll grant you that the article is mainly about "why Chrome?" rather than "why not Firefox?". In other words, though the title is not 100% linkbait, it does have a very high linkbait factor. But even the question "why Chrome?" isn't answered well. Here's the Larry Page answer that you refer to: Page said that the monetary benefits Google will gain from Chrome will come from the better and cheaper-to-develop web apps that its engineers can build using a better browser, as well as increased user loyalty and freed-up user time so they can search more. The meat of that response is the part about "a better browser" -- it's certainly the only part of the sentence that relates to the "why not Firefox?" question, since Google is more than capable of releasing a Google-cobranded Firefox. But what does "a better browser" mean? To answer that requires getting into details like "here's how the codebases are different", or "here's how the project management and release scheduling is different", or "here's how the overall goals of each project are different", or maybe even "here's the real political situation with Firefox vis-a-vis Chrome". But we don't get any discussion of such things. We get some warmed-over press conferences and PR-quality quotes from Larry Page.

jwilliams 18y ago
Yeah I agree - factors over the decision are unclear, and not made clear at all from those quotes. Google really want access to more of your data (to give you better data it's true) - and they need to control the experience to do that... I can't imagine any other reason for Google's moves at the moment.

menloparkbum 18y ago

why did the Google Engineers sit down to make the Browser of Future? I've spent 2 years of my working life with the Mozilla codebase. Also, 3 very close friends work at Google, and I must know at least 25 people who work there. My take is that mechanical_fish is completely correct. There was no secret strategic reason for doing this. Some engineers at Google simply wanted to make a better browser, and decided that the Mozilla codebase was too huge and crufty to deal with. Not a day went by working with the Mozilla codebase that I didn't think I could make a better browser from scratch, if only I had enough time and all my smart hacker friends wanted to pitch in and help me out. Google is probably still the most "bottom up" out of any of the huge firms out there, and they have "20% time" and all the personnel needed to make this happen. Once the guys got somewhere on their skunkworks version, the higher-ups probably thought "oh cool... another browser, we should put that out there. And hey, as a bonus maybe we don't have to keep dealing with the Mozilla foundation" Personally, I'm jealous because they basically implemented everything I thought sucked in Firefox. I had no idea Google had this up their sleeve (very impressed that my Google friends kept this a secret from me; yes, they knew about it), so until September 2 I had a minor dream that maybe someday I could spearhead the next killer browser. Unfortunately I spend too much time at my day job and on hacker news. Execution is everything folks, get to work! Of course I could be wrong and this started out as a sinister plot to own all your data and give the finger to the Mozilla foundation, but I really doubt it.

jwilliams 18y ago
I don't have the experience you have, so I have to side with you on that basis alone. I don't find Google's moves sinister - they want to provide a better user experience in order to be a better (and more successful) business. Google's strategy has always been one that works symbiotically... If they think more of my data is going to help them do that, well, then they might be right... and they might be right that most people will be happy with this. I don't buy that this is a skunkworks project though - there are a lot of key individuals contributing to this. Putting out a browser like this is a pretty serious undertaking. It'll take a lot of resources to maintain, and carries the Google brand in an extremely public way. So whilst the origins might be up for argument, I think this is a very deliberate and strategic move on Google's part.