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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 friend

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.

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.