What Has Google Been up to Lately? - Through the Browser
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It’s very rare, but sometimes Google does something that leaves people scratching their heads. I’m not talking about getting into Web-based email, or letting users customize their view of the Google home page; those steps make a certain amount of sense, when you look closer. In this case, I’m talking about releasing something cool that’s more or less already available elsewhere in almost exactly the same form.
At least with Web-based email, Google did it differently, and arguably better. But why would Google release a toolbar for the Firefox browser when there is already an open source version available? Google has offered its own toolbar for use with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser for more than four years. Users of Firefox who wanted the same features had to turn to GoogleBar, an independent project that emulates Google Toolbar features. The Google toolbar for Firefox is available in 10 languages and designed to work with Firefox versions for Windows, Linux, and Macs. It includes the same features as the IE toolbar, except for software that Firefox has built in and IE doesn’t, such as a pop-up blocker. Could this simply be a reaction to Google’s competitor Yahoo releasing a Firefox version of its own toolbar in February?
Another recent move by Google is more understandable. Starting in April, the company invited users to upload video into its index. Now Google has a video viewer that will stream these videos through IE or Firefox browsers. The video viewing software, only 1 MB in size, will only stream Google videos, so it does not compete with the multimedia players available from Microsoft and RealNetworks. While all of the available videos are free at the moment, Google plans to eventually charge for some of the content.
It might be able to drum up a new revenue stream that way. The topics currently available cover a wide range of interests, from breakdancing and gardening to how to advertise on Google. While Yahoo also offers videos, they are streamed through multimedia players made by other companies. Google’s video player might give it more control over the process, which could be useful for its plans to charge for some of the content.
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