Google Planning Web Browser?

Kick the Donkey writes "John Dvorak has just posted a very interesting, albeit hypothetical, analysis of Google's future directions. Citing the 'unusual' hires of Rob Pike (from Bell labs), Ben Goodger, and Darin Fisher (both from Mozilla) and the acquisition of the gbrowser.com domain, Dvorak speculates that a Firefox based Google browser and Google-OS may soon be coming to a cluster near you."

Hey, look

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a dead horse [slashdot.org], let's go beat it.

Yes, they are

[Anonymous Coward]

I know for a fact. It will be announced in two months and four days.

Well

[Anonymous Coward]

You're half right.

Re:Yes, they are

[drdink]

I heard it will be a joint announcement between Apple and Google about a Google OS that has a Google Browser that runs exclusively on the new PowerBook G5s. THIS WILL BE AWESOME!!!

New Era

[Obiwan Kenobi]

Oh my God. I think that's the first time I've ever seen Google-OS in a /. headline (note: headline).

We've entered a new era.

I think a Google browser will be excellent, and a just imagining a Google OS makes me giddy. Yup, giddy.

Re:With this guy's history...

[Anonymous Coward]

You should listen to him, you know... Given the law of averages, he's likely to be correct sooner or later by dumb luck.

Vendor Lock-in

[reporter]

The Machiavellian spirit in me says that Google is trying to creep into my desktop. The game plan apparently is to leverage Google's search fame into winning the web client market.

The web client is, in fact, the #1 application on the desktop these days. Literally, many people just click the "maximize" button after the browser is launched, and the web client occupies the entire surface of the screen. Off they go to read e-mail, look at porn, or cause a raucus on Slashdot by posting provocative articles.

Then, the next step for Google is to create Gunix (Google + Lunix), pronouced "goon-ix". With the Google client in place, you download Gunix and swap out M$ Window$.

Then ...

<waking up in a code sweat>
Google has a very good search engine, but I would prefer that Google stay off my desktop. I like Google just like it is -- a web site which I visit to read the latest news and to search for the best porn pictures.

The problem with Google taking over my desktop is that I would then be swapping one monopoly for another: Micro$oft. What I like about open source is the decentralization, anti-monopoly attitude of the folks behind the Free Software Foundation. This kind of environment tends to encourage programmers from all parts of the world to contribute her little bit to creating a peace of great software. No one group of developers becomes dominant like Micro$oft or eventually Google.

Re:Hey, look

[MST3K]

Nah, you can do that by yourself. I tried it once, but the horse wasn't actually dead. My girlfriend thinks the hoof sticking out of my forehead is kinda sexy, though.

Re:Advertising Tool?

[mph]

(Before you criticize remember that this is also /.'s business model.)

Far be it from anyone here to criticize slashdot.

PROOF: Direct Link

[ShallowThroat]

"http://switch.atdmt.com/action/Google_Browser" [atdmt.com]


It MUST be true!

Re:What's with the stupid google predictions?

[smileyy]

They're planning on taking on Nintendo?

Coming soon

[Bite-lover]

Coming soon: Google-condoms and Google-brand suppositories!

Re:Why the jump to OS?

[euro_hiker]

actually - I heard from my aunt's friends friend who she met on jerry springer's son that Google are writing an OS.... and its based on FreeBSD and OSX, with full apple support and its all open source and free and the shareholders at Google have decided they've made enough money and are donating any money accidently made to charity.

Re:Coming soon

[c666hellchild]

And if the google-condom didn't work (whether technical failiure or due to the inebriation of user), would it implement a browser-like "go-back" button? Or if the experience went by to fast (inebriation),a "refresh" option to try it again.

Re:Hey, look

[Ultra Magnus]

He didn't just beat a dead horse, he bought a stronger whip, changed riders, proclaimed "this is the way we have always ridden this horse," appointed a committee to study the horse, arranged visits to other sites to see how they ride dead horses, increased the standards of riding dead horses, declared that the horse is better, faster and cheaper dead, and finally, harnessed several dead horses together for increased speed.

Forget about Google you guys.

[Anonymous Coward]

What's all this yapping about Google?

Google fails on the basic theory of Internet social services: anti-spammers have to be stronger than the spammers.

Currently, this is not the case of Google. They can't compete with all these PageRank hackers. So what happens is I find Google less useful than it was 3 years ago. Before, if you punched in any idea, one of the first three links would be perfect. Now, it's either on the third page, or not even there because it's so clogged with PageRank spammers. Heck, they should get rid of the "I'm Feeling Lucky Button." I don't even use it anymore.

Wikipedia, now there's a site that holds up in the spamming principle. On wikipedia it's the world of spammers v. the world of anti-spammers, with the latter being much greater. I have not discovered a single bit of spam on wikipedia in my three years of using it. Nowadays, when I think about a topic to research, I first go to wikipedia then I go to Google.

So, what's Google left with? Well the place that spammers can't and don't find worth hitting is the very long tail of obscure terms. If you are searching for methylthiazolinone, then that's where Google works. sorta. You're better off at the library still.

Froogle sucks. Orkut sucks (except in Brazil). Google Suggest? used it for a day, haven't used it since.

My friends who work at Google say that the company's disorganized and that many employees are elitist. I have three friends who, independent of each other, quit Google because they didn't like the scene.

Now, I'm not a theory or rules person, even my theory on spamming is just speculation. But one thing I think is true about the Internet is that things change faster than people's attention spans. Even if Google becomes No. 3, it will take a while for people to get over the hype-brainwashing that has become the tale of Google. The cost for a consumer to switch most purely Internet services is aproximately 0.

Wither Google.

(Disclaimer: I am applying for a job at Google)

Dupe!

[mehu]

Hey look, it's a dupe!

Oh wait- my posting that it's a dupe is a dupe...

Oh wait- my realization that my posting is a dupe is a dupe...

Oh wait...

Re:Why the jump to OS?

[justins]

His hiring by Google would imply they are looking to develop their own OS.

Or that they just wanted a really good engineer, one who happened to be available after the meltdown of Bell Labs.

Oh wait. That's a stretch. That they would hire someone just because they were a good engineer... crazy talk.

Re:Nope.

[sloanster]

Google's a search engine company, I don't want to see any other product from them.

Feel free to keep your eyes closed then.

I for one welcome our new google browser overlords.

Re:rebuttal

[suckmysav]

What is this "dumb" of which you speak and why would he want to fuck it?

Re:zerg

[The-Bus]

Yes, here they are, in chronological order:

.

Re:Why the jump to OS?

[ReadParse]

Plan 9 has a LOT of really good ideas.

Yeah, apparently they're on their 9th.

RP

Re:With this guy's history...

[Anonymous Coward]

No that was invented by Thomas Qwerty.

Re:In defense of Dvorak

[lsmeg]

More sign that Slashdot is dropping down to the level of the WWF crowd.

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Re:Yeah

[Spekdah]

Napolean anyone? Or did I miss that hollywood flick that now made him American :p

Re:Why the jump to OS?

[Trejkaz]

My favourite variant is "Emacs is a fantastic OS, but it could really use a better text editor."