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John Doerr Disclaims Rumored GBrowser
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?"
They registered Gbrowser.com for the same reason they turned "www.googlegear.com" into "www.zipzoomfly.com." They don't want some schmuck grabbing names that might be related to them, and bogarting off their brand recognition. Just my 2 cents on the matter.
Now it makes you wonder why Google registered gbrowser.com?
:)
well, gmail caught so much attention to competitors and made them all increase their inbox limits. maybe they thought registering it will do the same and increase the quality of browsers on the market?
ok probably none of this is true. just a thought that came to my mind though
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
Maybe they really aren't looking to enter the browser wars. Perhaps it's for a plugin of some sort to simply "enhance" browsing. I know they have their toolbar (and I personally user the googlebar for Mozilla). Perhaps there's something bigger and better around the corner.
What other browser enhancements could you see working their way into a plugin without it being labeled "spyware"?
Or... perhaps this guy really has no clue what's going on and Gbrowser v0.9 is right around the corner.
-- Stu
/. ID under 2,000. I feel old now.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
It could be some other type of browser.
If google intends to compete with MS and IE then it's stupid for them to try and make their own browser. However it is VERY smart to throw all their weight and resources into making mozilla so killer it blows IE out of the water.
I'm just really surprised they haven't ported the popular google toolbar into a firefox extension yet.
Given how little it costs to register a domain name, one shouldn't be surprised that Google is shotgunning the DNS for names and products they never intend to market. Still, I don't know how in the loop we should assume Doerr is. His string theory parallel in TFA was pained and stupid. VCs are worse than marketroids at this stuff -- I've met my share, and if they didn't have the money to suck in entrepreneurs that actually know what they're doing, I suspect most of them would be in middle management. Schlock.
Always a godfather; never a god. -Gore Vidal
I do not think that Google is planning on building a browser either. If I were google I would build an office suite based on XUL or XAML that was compatible to word. Think about it how much would a company pay to not have to maintain updates on office applications. How much is it worth to have their employees to be able to logon and access all their files and applications from any computer aroun d the world. This is no small task but even if they just built in groupware function into gmail they would have something that companies would drool over. Just my 2 cents
The problem with that is most of the stuff they build is Windows specific and IE specific. Surely, they would be building Mozilla/FireFox extensions if they were planning on expanding thier browser extensions.
But when you read gbrowser.com, do you think google? I think "GTK" or "Gnome" first, then I think G as in "whut up G?"
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Imagine a web browser that ties directly into Google. Or imagine Google as a part of YOUR network.. This application will do MORE then browse... it will serve all kinds of data. And there will be subscriptions for certain classes of data.... and well, let's just say it will be the prelude to a virtual office environment. Think Sharepoint or similiar, but not really. Not as crappy either. Google is in a race with m$ on these things... that is why you are seeing DENY DENY DENY, but rest assured, all of it is coming. The things on the board:
1. Browsing
2. Extended Search
3. Subscription Feeds
4. "Office" like sharing (whiteboard, wiki stuff)
5. File keeper (and you thought 1 gig was cool)
6. Multimedia capability
7. Mail (you have gmail already)
8. Journal (you've seen something like this too)
9. Social Networking (Orkut is just a rough idea of what is to come here, but think rolodex on steroids, in your address book)
And much much more. You see... I know things. I know what Google is doing, and it both amazes me, excites me, and scares me.
Thank god for stock options.
Since when does Google need any domains other than google.com? They've generally been very clueful about knowing how to use logical subdomains for their various sites, like groups.google.com, images.google.com, and so on.
--Dan
Web Tips
I hope they're making a windows version of Sherlock. Or better yet - a Firefox plugin version of Sherlock.
?
I think you're right on the money. I learned something important a long time ago:
If you ever think you may possibly want a domain name for some obscure reason at some unknown point in the future, then waste no time in registering it immediately. Even if you end up not using the domain, the $10 (or whatever) makes this a very minimal risk. You can always let it return to the pool of available domain names later, if you decide you definately don't need it.
I learned this the hard way -- back in 1997, I was thinking about registering the .com domain name of my town to make a web site, but I kept putting it off. When I finally got around to registering it, the registration failed because someone else had submitted a registration form for it minutes before I did. And the person who registered it lived hundreds of miles away, to boot!
I'm sure that even if some Google guys were just yapping about a browser over lunch, someone probably had the sense to register the domain... just in case.
I guess the only reason they have to release a browser at this point is to lay foundations for a MS like empire. Granted I dont think they will be producing operating systems any time soon, but maybe they want to take on MS in other areas like e-commerce, news, mail, and everything else MS does that is no way related to the software they developed. MS is not necessarily dominating in every area they touch but just putting the MS logo on things drags in thousands of know-nothing users who think anything MS branded is their solution.
They have both googlesucks.com and googleblows.com. But what is interesting to me is the apparent foresight they had in registering them:
Domain Name: googleblows.net
Created on..............: 1999-Oct-15.
Expires on..............: 2005-Oct-15.
Record last updated on..: 2004-Oct-01 21:03:44.
Domain Name: googleblows.com
Created on..............: 1999-Oct-15.
Expires on..............: 2005-Oct-15.
Record last updated on..: 2004-Oct-01 21:03:13.
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
I'm not so very into browser development, but it would seem to me that Google already have the bulk part of a browser already finished.
:-)
After all, the Google spider robot is top of its class when it comes to parsing HTML. Just think of all the poorly written pages out there with nested/broken tags etc. which Google indexes every day.
After all, Google is already THE most used "browser" on the net if you think about it. It just doesn't have a GUI
--
Will work for bandwidth.
I thought it was obvious. Google has made its money off of being the best search engine available. How did they do it? By creating the Page Rank algorithm. How does Page Rank work? By giving sites linked by many sources a higher value. Imagine Google had a (completely sanitised) copy of everybody's history file from their web browsers listing where they have been, at what time, for how long, and where they went next. They could use this information in a similar way to how they use Page Rank now and create an even more useful search algorithm.
Or maybe I am paranoid (goes back to reading emails in gmail).
Remember the last time Doerr was associated with a Top Secret project?
By stealing a slice of the $300 billion-plus transportation industry, Doerr predicts, the Segway Co. will be the fastest outfit in history to reach $1 billion in sales.
Soon it will be rumored that the new GBrowser flies and is powered by an ultra efficient Striling engine. Every science kid will be out registering domain names like gbStrilingBrowser and gbPilots
In fact I am pretty sure the "g" is for Ginger.
Prohibition enables organized crime to get rich from the public vice. It does not stop the vice. - Dunbal