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John Doerr Disclaims Rumored GBrowser

Posted by timothy on from the no-recollection-of-that-no-sir dept.

iseff writes "Contrary to the rumors which have been circulating, John Doerr (VC and early investor in Google) told the Web 2.0 conference that although he believes in another browser war, Google won't be a part of it. Then again, he did say he didn't know everything that goes on at Google, even though he's on the board. Now it makes you wonder why Google registered gbrowser.com?"

7 of 300 comments (clear)

  1. I'm not convinced by rafikki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you look at all the new programs they've been putting out lately, the deskbar, the toolbar, the new Gmail Notifier etc. and realize that all that stuff could be very usefully integrated into a web browser... not to mention some of the stuff floating around in their Labs section. I suspect that's not the last word we'll here on a new browser.

    1. Re:I'm not convinced by nine-times · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I agree. They could easily take Firefox, add a few extensions that tie in specifically with their services, and rebrand it "gbrowser".

      Of course, I'm also not sure it's very worth their while at this point. Firefox's default search is Google. People have already created a Google/Gmail related extensions for Firefox without Google needing to lift a finger. As long as the open-source community is so supportive of Google, it might fall under the category of 'why bother?'

  2. Options by Kralizec · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Now it makes you wonder why Google registered gbrowser.com?

    Because every business likes to keep its options open?

  3. Browser War by pete-classic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they believe in the browser war, why do they only support IE?

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I belive that the tool bar and the gmail notifier are Windows/IE only.

    -Peter

  4. and no Netflix/Tivo deal, either... by javaxman · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I mean, really, you can believe what you want... but it would be a bit foolish to trust a businessman !

    Not that I see Google making a browser ( I don't... maybe they'd pick up a cobrand an existing one, if anything ), but this guy's statement could just be possitioned to throw people off of an otherwise secret business strategy... I seem to recall Netflix and Tivo denying their deal quite firmly, for example...

  5. Cheaper than a trademark lawsuit... by drmike0099 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Registering and keeping your own names out of everyone else's hands is a much simpler and cheaper way to do it, rather than getting into nasty, expensive lawsuits later on over who gbrowser.com is owned by. How much did the Lindows lawsuit cost MS, both in terms of $$ and public good will?

  6. Re:Browser? by gmuslera · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I'm a spanish speaker so sometimes i miss some details in english expressions, but a browser don't need to be a desktop web browser like IE/Mozilla/Opera. Something that could be interesting is a site that gives an overview of different google sites, an integrated view of their services or portal site and maybe that could be called that way.

    Of course, they also could want to avoid some porn site to use that domain name to trick visitors thinking that it as a "door" to google.