[ Google browser ] ... 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."
this has been true for at least 4 years. (well, the first two years, it was a separate search feature on the left sidepanel.) what's missing from the speculation is the simple observation that, once microsoft sees this, they'll do exactly the same thing on internet explorer, but instead will use search.msn.com.
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.
skeptical for good reason: firefox is open source; google can't own it. if they were to contribute to it, making it far better than msft's browser, then msft has a simple solution: do the same thing. preloading the right plugins and writing extensions (which is very easy) is all that's needed to customize it and give it microsoft specific functionality. (leveraging the os, as they did with i.e.)
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.
why do people keep saying this? what is google doing that makes it seem like they're trying to be netscape reborn? if ad revenue from owning the desktop were so enormous, why isn't micrsoft cashing in on it?
that said, there *is* possibly a good reason for a google browser, which would be related to a recent patent application of theirs for targeted ads appearing in the browser. after all, in terms of business, they're primarily an ad broker, and they are currently just brokering ads for their own content. (search results.) if they own the browser, they could broker ads for other folks content as well, and move into the yahoo space, without having to become a content aggregator.
nevertheless, it still seems like everything that they're doing isn't geared towards taking over the desktop: its about putting content online that they can host or link to.
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.
now this is just outlandish.
And what's to stop them at the operating system level?
um, how long did it take to get apple's os x out the door? and they even started from an existing os (bsd unix).
It could probably get an Apple-like premium for such a machine and load it up with proprietary software too.
lol. this thing is sounding like a conversation that dvorak could have had with larry and sergey at burning man ...
Meanwhile, I expect to see the gbrowser before year's end.
i'd take that bet!
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
