Next stop for the Google toolbar is the open-source Mozilla Firefox browser, according to an e-mail posted on the Mozilla site.
The July 1st e-mail, posted on Mozilla’s developer site, was penned under the name of Google engineer Fritz Schneider.
“I thought I’d drop you a note to give a heads up on something Google
will be releasing next week: a version of our Internet Explorer toolbar for
Firefox,” the e-mail reads.
Schneider said the Firefox toolbar is slated for release on
Thursday July 7.
The e-mail also asks developers not to speak with the press until Google
makes the announcement tomorrow.
The software will work on Microsoft’s Windows 2000
and XP platforms, Mac OS X 10.2, and “Linux 8.0+”, as well as quick links to
Google properties and access to advanced functionality such as
spellchecking and translation.
“It has pretty much the same features as the latest IE toolbar except of
course for things like the popup blocker,” the e-mail said. Firefox already
has built-in Pop-up features.
Although Google’s toolbar has been available for Internet Explorer (IE)
for more than four years, this would be the first time the search giant
moved to create a version for users of a browser developed by the Mozilla
foundation.
The release of a Firefox version likely signals Google’s growing awareness of
increased market penetration by the open source browser. The once obscure
browser continues to
snatch users users from industry titan Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
Google and Microsoft’s competitor Yahoo released a Firefox
version of its own toolbar in February.
“We really appreciate the work you folks did to fill this gap in our
products for so long,” the Schneider e-mail said.
It also said the company would keep a link to the Googlebar from the
toolbar download page so users can make the choice of which toolbar they’d
like to install.
Google representatives were not immediately available for comment.