Firefox plays it cool on Chrome

 

Gallery

Posted on 2 Sep 2008 at 12:58

Mozilla CEO John Lilly responded nonchalantly to news that Google is launching a rival to Firefox. In his blog, Lilly claims that the launch of a Google web browser ought to have been expected.

Lily also suggested that more people working towards to make the web better for consumers is a good thing.

"It should come as no real surprise that Google has done something here - their business is the web, and they've got clear opinions on how things should be, and smart people thinking about how to make things better," he said.

Lilly admitted that Google's entry into the web browser arena means that Mozilla must continue to raise its game, but stressed that the move will not affect the relationship between the two companies.

"On the technical side of things, we've collaborated most recently on Breakpad, the system we use for crash reports - stuff like that will continue," he said. "On the product front, we've worked with them to implement best-in-class anti-phishing and anti-malware that we've built into Firefox, and looks like they're building into Chrome."

"On the financial front, as has been reported lately, we've just renewed our economic arrangement with them through November 2011, which means a lot for our ability to continue to invest in Firefox and in new things like mobile and services. So all those aligned efforts should continue."

Lilly also revealed that the company has a host of new developments for Firefox, which consumers will be seeing shortly including open video and a next-generation Javascript engine called TraceMonkey for 3.1.

"And beyond that, lots of breakthroughs like Weave, Ubiquity, and Firefox Mobile," added Lilly.

Author: Theo Salvador