giant and browser maker Firefox.
The Firefox browser is looking for allies in its quest to challenge
Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer and Web users are buzzing about
a potential link-up with search company Google.
The Mozilla Foundation's Firefox software, which officially launches on
Nov. 9, has already been downloaded by millions attracted by the
promise of innovative features like tabbed browsing -- opening multiple
Web sites within a single desktop window -- and fewer attacks by
hackers and virus writers.
Mozilla, which gives the Firefox software away for free to users and
developers, is seeking out content and technology companies to develop
their own branded versions of Firefox by adding extra features.
Speculation about a Google browser began when the company registered
the Gbrowser.com domain in April, and grew when it hired software
engineers who worked on Internet Explorer.
"We are not building a browser," Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt
told the Financial Times last week. But that statement may leave some
wriggle room for Google to take a fully built browser like Firefox and
add its own features.
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment, and as fevered as the
speculation has become, there has been no firm evidence of a
Mozilla-Google deal.
For Firefox the appeal is clear. Google's universally-recognised brand
and devoted user following could boost the browser's miniscule
marketshare, which most experts estimate is currently less than 5
percent. Mozilla is targeting 10 percent market share by the end of
2005.
For Google the benefits would be more subtle.
Google's current offerings, aside from its core Web search engine,
include email (Gmail), blogging tools (Blogger), a price comparison
site (Froogle), a news site (Google News), social networking software
(Orkut) and desktop search software.
Nearly all are accessed via the Web -- which means mostly through
Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer software, which has more than a
90 percent market share.
Many analysts see Google and Microsoft as increasingly fierce
competitors, so it may make strategic sense for Google to control its
own destiny by launching its own Web browser.
Such a move would carry risks. Netscape, the dot-com pioneer whose
browser code eventually became the basis for Firefox, lost its dominant
position in part because it incorporated too many features into its
software, which became bloated and slow.
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