Google CEO dismisses talk of a Google Browser; Recommends the Opera browser
Published May 31st, 2006 5:16 PM EDT By Daniel Goldman
In a conference call today with Wall Street analysts, Google CEO Eric Schmidt dismissed the idea that Google is planning on creating its own browser, Reuters reported.
“It looks like people have some good browser[s] choices already,” Schmidt said. “We would not build a browser for the fun of building a browser,” he said.
Schmidt also mentioned that Google has partnerships with Opera Software that encourages the use of the Opera browser.
Late last year there was a rumor that Google was planning on buying the Opera browser, though an Opera official outright denied this claim, after I asked about it, saying, “Rumors come and go. Google is not buying Opera.”
Earlier this year Opera and Google entered into an agreement where Google would be the default search partner for the mobile browsers: Opera Mobile and Opera Mini. Under the one-year contract, Opera will make Google Search a major part of the browser’s home screen.
Opera also has a deal with Google, which includes a search revenue deal, marketing support and technical cooperation.
I sure hope that if Google is sticking with alternative browsers, that it would offer better support or its services for browsers such as Opera and Safari.
(Hat-tip to Tom O’Shea)
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Yeah, the Google Browser was one of those silly rumors that just wouldn’t go away. I think it stems from two perceptions:
1. Microsoft and Google are rivals, therefore, Google will try to compete with each and every Microsoft product.
2. Google is a web company, so of course they’ll want to have a web browser.
#1 is an oversimplification. #2 is just a bizarre leap of logic. Sort of like, “X is a TV studio, so of course they’ll want to sell TVs.” The closest I can think of is Sony, and IIRC they went the other way—they made TVs first, then bought some studios.
The only things that Google, at least in its current form, would really gain from making their own browser would be (1) adding functionality that they could then use in their web applications, and (2) increasing their traffic by way of browser defaults. They already have both. They’ve got people contributing to Firefox (or at least used to), and they’ve got at least one voice in WHATWG. And that traffic from browser defaults? They’ve got deals with Opera, Firefox and Safari—the three main non-IE choices.
Hmm, come to think of it, it’s in Google’s interest to recommend all three, since greater use of F/O/S will encourage greater use of Google…
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Yeah, google should make their web tools workable with Opera and alternative browsers that aren’t Mozilla-based. Look at their recent foray into website hosting, google pages. It’s unworkable with Opera.
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Heathen Dan, support for closed source web-browsers like opera is harder, look at Roboform for example, still unsupported under opera.
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Sam, but Opera is based on open standards.
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Roboform is something which should have been included in Opera. People have been requesting it for years.But it seems to have fallen in deaf ears.
For hvin extensions Opera doesnt need to be a open source product, it needs to have a SDK for creating extensions ( eg. Maxthon browser ).
Also Daniel , that article only says that Schmidt debunked the rumours about Gbrowser, it doesnt say that they recomend Opera.
Google are actually working very closely with Firefox. They will help Fxv2 with Anti-phishing technology.
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Pallab De, read the last sentence of the Reuters article that I linked to; it’s easy to miss it.
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Reason Google having a strong relationship with Mozilla, Google has direct access to the source, bugzilla and the firefox development community as a whole. Opera may support open standards, but its not open in its development.
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If he’s so gung-ho about Opera, they should make all of Google’s services fully compatible with it then. Having to open up Google Calendar in a different browser is annoying.
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Sam, if the open standards are followed, it shouldn’t matter how Opera implements it inside their code.
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Daniel, its not as easy or simple as that, my original claim
“support for closed source web-browsers like opera is harder, look at Roboform for example, still unsupported under opera.”
because “Google having a strong relationship with Mozilla, Google has direct access to the source, bugzilla and the firefox development community as a whole.”
You have to understand, 3rd party support under Opera is near impossible. Having access to the source etc can help with 3rd party support, like Roboform and Google improve the browser.
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Daniel, Google’s CEO doesn’t recommend Opera anywhere. From the article (emphasis mine):
Google encourages its customers to use a variety of alternatives to Internet Explorer, particularly the open-source Firefox browser.
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Yeah, post title is inaccurate.
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Here is the last sentence of the article:
“It also has partnerships to encourage the use of the Safari browser among Apple Computer Inc. customers, Norway’s Opera Software ASA, which makes browsers for computers and phones, among several other browser alternatives, he said.“
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Why not title the blog post “Google CEO encourages Firefox, Safari and Opera”, then?
God only knows what mr. Schmidt actually said and how the reporter (mis)quoted him… But it is clear that Google is encouraging Firefox, while the last sentence is far from it. Of course they like when people use Safari and Opera since it makes them money, but I definitely wouldn’t go so far as to make a claim as presented in this post.
For Google, Firefox is the #1 browser. The others are there just to make them more money; if they truly cared, they would have made their web apps fully functional in Safari and Opera.
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Eric Schmidt did not recommend Opera. He did not specifically recommend any browser. However, it was clear from what he said that Google considers Mozilla Firefox to be their prime partner in the browser arena, with other browsers such as Safari and Opera having a lower status (though it was implicit that they’re still valued ahead of Internet Explorer).
How do I know all this? Why, I listened to conference call. At Google’s press release announcing the May 31st investor conference call, there are links to streaming audio recordings of the conference call in RealAudio and Windows Media Audio formats.
The conference call recordings can currently be found at investor.google.com/webcast but they will move to investor.google.com/webcast_archive in the future. The recordings pop up in these tiny windows that seem designed to make listening to them difficult. Fortunately, I extracted the actual URL of the RealAudio file of http://video.vdat.com/playmedia_embed2.asp?sid=58148&aid=59475 and loaded it directly into RealPlayer, allowing me to pause, rewind and re-listen to Schmidt’s answers.
The question about Google making a browser starts at 26:15 and lasts until about 28:13. Fortunately, I’ve transcribed the answer below, so you don’t have to listen to it. I haven’t included the question but it can be paraphrased as, “Why doesn’t Google make their own browser that ties in with their other services?”
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Why should we care? Googel sucks anyway.
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“Why not title the blog post ‘Google CEO encourages Firefox, Safari and Opera’, then?”
Because this is *Opera*Watch. Sheesh, what’s the point of making this into an Opera vs. FF discussion?
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Google has to embrace all standard based browsers.
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Off-topic, when does that FireFox guy interview get published & what happened to the “Wii love these people” thing? Did anyone solve it?
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Ankur, last I heared was that about 25 people solved all the Wii clues.