Firefox's lead engineer takes job with Google

By Steve Malone

Posted on 25 Jan 2005 at 10:59

Ben Goodger, the lead engineer behind the upstart Firefox browser has left the Mozilla Foundation to work for Google on... Firefox. The announcement, which was made in Goodger's personal blog has fuelled speculation that Google is working on its own browser.

In his blog Goodger says 'My role with Firefox and the Mozilla project will remain largely unchanged, I will continue doing much the same work... with the new goal of successful 1.1, 1.5 and 2.0 releases. I remain devoted full-time to the advancement of Firefox, the Mozilla platform and web browsing in general.'

Since its launch in November last year, the Firefox browser has become one of the hottest downloads on the internet. Yesterday, according to its booster site www.spreadfirefox.com/ version 1.0 went over 20 million downloads. According to the web analysis company Websidestory.com, the Firefox is now half way to its stated aim of taking 10 per cent of the browser market.

Whether or not Google actually gets any product of its own from having Goodger on the payroll is beside the point. The search engine is locked in battles on several fronts with Microsoft from web and desktop search to blogging and web based email. Anything that loosens Redmond's iron grip on the browser market will be seen as a good thing.