So what's the 20 billion dollar (plus) IPO darling and god of the virtual search engine market Google conjuring up in secrecy? The big G's April 2004 registration of a particular domain name, could hold the key to answering that very question:
"For several months, there's been a lot of buzz around Google's April 2004 registration of the gbrowser.com domain.......The overlap is looking like a Google branded and customized Firefox based browser. To help set it apart from the rest of the browser crowd, they're integrating a lot of their own technologies. Since Firefox does not contain a mail app, they're integrating Gmail for email access, with a built in new-mail notifier. Interestingly, mailto: urls will work with Gmail, allowing peple to click email links in pages and have Gmail open a new mail to that address, as well as IE-like buttons on the toolbar for composing new mail from scratch."
source: MozillaNews
While the mozillanews author contends that much of the gbrowser.com rumours are exactly that........rumours. It hasn't stopped web pros from voicing an opinion on the issue, both inside and outside the spectrum:
".....search engine giant Google, which is flush with cash from its initial public offering and is rapidly expanding into new businesses ......"It makes a ton of sense for them to be looking at a browser," Mozilla marketing chief Bart Decrem told Reuters. "It would be a smart thing for Google to do."
source: USAToday
"........Mozilla President Mitchell Baker denied rumors that the Mountain View, Calif., foundation was working with Google on a browser based on Firefox or its Gecko rendering engine. ....."The code base is open for companies to do what they wish to do, but we're not working with Google on a special browser," Baker said. "We are not working on a Google browser.
source: eWeek
"Judging by Google's history, a Google browser would likely be an elegant Internet appliance that would integrate the best things about Google's products and services, and likely would come up with innovative approaches to surfing the Web, and organizing its information for personal use."
source: The Motley Fool
Google higher ups deny any internal based browser is in the works, but reports of recent hirings of Microsoft techies by the search juggernaut would lead one to believe something must be in the works. As for the gbrowser domain that started all the commotion...it's registered until April 2006.....look for it to be quite active in late 2005.......but that's just a rumour.
