Google Nabs FireFox Developer
By Jeremy C. Wright, Staff Writer
Wednesday, 26 January 2005 10:55 EST
Google, the world’s largest search engine, has hired the lead engineer of the FireFox web browser. FireFox has become something of a movement of late, achieving more than 20 million downloads with an ad budget created from user donations, a lot of passion and millions of committed evangelists.
The move by Google is fueling semi-dormant speculation that Google is working on a web browser – or will be soon. Ben Goodger noted on his blog that he would continue working on the Open Source browser.
The move is bound to rekindle speculation about a Google browser, something a Google spokeswoman in the UK declined to comment on. "We can't share any information about what we're working on, but many of our products aim to transform the browsing experience," she said.
Goodger’s title at Google will be Software Enginner. Fully half of his time will be donated to the Mozilla foundation, which develops FireFox.
Goodger is happy about the move, specifically that he will continue his involvement in FireFox.
"My role with Firefox and the Mozilla project will remain largely unchanged," Goodger wrote in the post. "I will continue doing much the same work … with the new goal of successful [Version] 1.1, 1.5 and 2.0 releases. I remain devoted full-time to the advancement of Firefox, the Mozilla platform and Web browsing in general."
The move is one of the first in evidence that Google is openly supporting Open Source, instead of merely using it to fuel its hundreds of thousands of servers without paying licensing fees.
Baker’s role in the development of FireFox should be unchanged, as he will keep his title of “module owner”, which in his case means he oversees Firefox engineering. Those serving as Mozilla module owners agree to act in the best interest of Mozilla project and community.
|
|
|
Latest News
Essential Bluetooth hacking tools
25.05.07 Bluetooth provides an easy way for a wide range of mobile devices to communicate with each other without the need for cables or wires.
DEP for IE7 in Vista
22.05.07 Security tips blog, security-hacks, has posted details on how to enable DEP for Internet Explorer 7 in Vista.
SMB over SSH: Secure File Sharing
18.05.07 Security tips blog, security-hacks, has published an simple guide to share files securely in heterogeneous networks.
Avoid data leaks by clearing the page file
14.05.07 Security-Hacks publishes a useful tip to avoid potential data leaks when you run out of memory.
How to set Master Password in Firefox
11.05.07 Nowadays many web sites require you to type a user name and password before you can enter the site.
How to test your firewall?
10.05.07 Security tips blog, Security-Hacks, has published a compilation of tools to test your firewall: "We’ve compiled a list of tools we believe will be of value to both home users and advance users.
eEye released integer overflow auditing tool
16.02.07 Vulnerability research company eEye Security has released a free security vulnerability auditing tool that helps spotting possible integer overflow vulnerabilities.
|
|
