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[James T Kirk]

'Plan 9' from Google
Commentary: A browser may be just their first step
By John C. Dvorak
Last Update: 1:45 PM ET Jan. 26, 2005
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BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- One of the earmarks for the year 2005 will undoubtedly be the myriad stories that will develop around Google and its machinations.

A Google browser is just the first step

Since its IPO last year, the company has been pushing its business model into all sorts of new frontiers. These range from turning great libraries into electronic repositories to developing a web-based e-mail system to this week's announcement that it will offer a search of TV content starting with the archives of PBS, C-Span and Fox.

Many of Google's (GOOG: news, chart, profile) more interesting engines and initiatives are found on this special site here. One particularly interesting specialized engine is its Microsoft search engine here. This engine searches all the Microsoft-related sites including the massive Microsoft.com site which many, myself included, find to be impossible to navigate without Google.

Google browser

Amongst all this activity there has been persistent speculation that Google is going to release its own browser. The reasons for this probably stem from the fear that sometime in the future searching functions could be built in to the browser and the search engine might not be Google. This possibility was proven likely when Firefox introduced its browser with a built-in search box. The default engine for the feature turned out to be Google, but it could have been anything. It's long been known in the technology community that most people simply keep the default and never explore other options.

Then the announcement was made this week that Google had hired the lead developer for the Mozilla Firefox browser, Ben Goodger. Since April Google has had on file its ownership of the domain name gbrowser.com After doing an e-mail service called gmail, it should be apparent what gbrowser is. I suspect that this new browser will be an offshoot of the open source Mozilla Firefox browser and Goodger's job will be to ensure a smooth transition. Goodger says he will maintain his ties with the Mozilla.org development team, although others in the community are skeptical.

Firefox on steroids

If Google does a modified Firefox browser you can be certain that it will be optimized for Google searching and may incorporate shortcuts to make things easier for the user although you can expect much of its orientation will be aimed at promoting gmail and blogger among other Google properties. And it will probably be designed to be the front-end or client screen for perhaps a more secret project, the development of a so-called Internet OS to replace Windows.

If you follow the Google strategy their incursions are leading directly down a path often discussed during the late 1990's -- a browser-centric Internet OS. Netscape hinted about this possibility and Microsoft (MSFT: news, chart, profile) got freaked about it, since it would marginalize its Windows OS.

These concepts are not lost on Google. Think of the potential advertising revenue you can generate when you own the entire desktop environment.

Google operating system

This strategy may account for some unusual hires by Google including Rob Pike from Bell labs, one of the development team members for an unusual distributed OS called Plan 9, named for the wacky Ed Wood cult film, "Plan 9 from Outer Space." While Pike may have been brought in to help the company deal with its internal software used to control tens of thousands of clusters, there is speculation that Google wants to push out onto the desktop. The company is already toying with distributed grid computing with its obscure Google Computer project: http://toolbar.google.com/dc/offerdc.html.

And what's to stop them at the operating system level? What about a Googlebox? An actual machine.

Since all the X86 computers are essentially generic machines made in China, why wouldn't Google leverage its brand name and roll out the Google X1 -- the "computer for the X-Generation!" It could probably get an Apple-like premium for such a machine and load it up with proprietary software too.

Meanwhile, I expect to see the gbrowser before year's end. We'll see where that goes.

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