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Dec-2008

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Mozilla CEO Confirms "Complicated" Relationship with Google, Since Chrome

Last week, I did a post called Google and Chrome: How Much Does the Company Really Care About Firefox? in which I noted that Google removed Firefox as the default browser from its Google Pack collection of applications, replacing it with its own Chrome open source browser. As many people have noted, Mozilla gets most of its revenues--about 60 million dollars last year--from Google, in exchange for making Google the default search engine in Firefox and click-throughs on advertisements. Although that arrangement is protected through 2011, Mozilla's CEO John Lilly has now confirmed that his company's ties with Google are complicated with the arrival of Chrome.


The Open Source Crystal Ball

The end of the year is a self-indulgent time, when those who write about technology stop making lists of the best, worst, and most mind-numbingly mediocre applications they find and pause to make lists about tech trends in the upcoming year.

Assessing the past is easy: it has been an interesting year for open source software. Predictions that come to pass, unless suitably vague, just fall into the lucky guess category. The one prediction I am sure of for 2009: Open source software will hold its own when it comes to growth and adoption.

My other predictions? What do you think?



Google and Chrome: How Much Does the Company Really Care About Firefox?

Ever since Google unveiled its open source Chrome browser, I and others have been wondering what its stance toward Mozilla Firefox will be going forward. Firefox, of course, has proven to be the little engine that could among really ubiquitous open source applications, with more than 20 percent market share now. Firefox has also been subsidized by Google for years, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, and Google recently pledged to continue that funding through 2011. Still, there are some signs that Google's long-term plan may be to promote Chrome at what could be the expense of Firefox. Is Firefox's future in peril?


Google Chrome's Kimono Opened--A Little

Stephen Shankland from CNet has an interesting item up today about the very first non-Google coder getting an invitation to add code directly to the open source browser project. In a blog post, Evan Martin, a software engineer at Google, nominates University of Warsaw computer science student Pawel Hajdan Jr. to move from contributor --submitting patches and the like to the Chrome team--to committer, working directly on the browser's code. The nomination provides a glimpse of how high-profile open source projects truly treat openness.


Yes, Chrome Loses Its Beta Status -- Already

When Google's Marissa Mayer told TechCrunch's Michael Arrington that Chrome would drop the beta designation less than two days ago, the implication was that it would happen pretty quickly. When you consider the length of some beta stages (and drawn out, fanfare driven gold releases), Chrome's 1.0 release yesterday was fast and relatively quiet.

InformationWeek shares a little of my aforementioned concern that taking an application out of the testing stage prematurely can have some serious consequences, and it does offer some insight into Google's thought processes.



Chrome to Lose Beta Status -- Already?

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington is reporting that Google's vice president Marissa Mayer told him in an interview that Chrome will be coming out of beta.

Mayer didn't give a definite time frame, but one would assume that this would mean sooner rather than later. This announcement is a little surprising for a few reasons.



Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 Available For Testing

On Monday, the Mozilla team announced the general availability of Firefox 3.1 beta 2 for testing. Aside from increased localization support, a new Private Browsing mode, new tab switching and preview behaviors, and support for a number of new web technologies (such as the W3C Geolocation API and offline applications), the new beta release uses the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine by default, and has made tweaks to the Gecko engine to speed content rendering.



Keep Your Eye on Webkit and Multiple Browsers in the Browser Wars

Wow, the competition among open source browsers is getting so heated that you have to stay on top of the day-to-day goings on with the pre-release versions. We've written before about Google Chrome winning speed tests, and I keep hearing people cite it as the fastest browser. Meanwhile, CNet has been posting speed results showing very strong performance from the beta version of Firefox 3.1 (it is indeed snappy).? Now, there are some new performance results out that show the nightly builds of Webkit--the open source rendering engine within Safari and Chrome--posting the fastest speeds of all.


Windows Drops Below 90% Market Share--Firefox Above 20%

NetApplications is out with a couple of new metrics of market share for operating systems and browsers, and the news is good for open source. Topping their findings, Microsoft Windows' market share has dropped below 90 percent for the first time in its measurements. The share erosion is largely attributed to increased interest in the Mac platform, but Linux is cited as on the rise as well. In addition, for the first time since it launched its metrics, NetApplications' data shows Firefox's market share topping 20 percent.


Extensions Coming for Google Chrome

Google Chrome and the beta version 3.1 of Firefox have been much in the news for the neck-and-neck speeds they're showing in performance tests, but one of the clear advantages of Firefox remains the many outstanding extensions available for it. Now, in answer to many questions on the topic, Google programmer Aaron Boodman has put up a post confirming work on add-ons for Chrome, including a link to a design document for proposed extensions. It looks like many Firefox extension developers will be able to easily deliver their tools for Chrome. Check out more here.