But with open source development as the guiding principle behind Firefox, the notion of knocking off Microsoft 's dominant browser is probably not a realistic goal.

Speculation surrounding Google's browser intentions was stoked last year around references to a "Gbrowser" in some of the company's products. It may be more likely that Google would optimize its services to work hand-in-glove with Firefox rather than developing its own branded browser.

Musical Chairs

Microsoft's browser strategy is based on the constant tweaking and updating of the product and its solid market position in businesses. Explorer is optimized to work with Microsoft's Windows software, both on desktops and on servers.

An enterprise would require a compelling reason to switch from a product it has used long-term for another. That reason is usually cost savings. But in the case of booting Explorer for Firefox, a company would gain virtually nothing from the move because both are free. An I.T. department has more important things to do than play musical chairs with software that already works.

If Google offered a free browser -- and it most certainly would have to be free -- what argument could it give enterprises to switch from Explorer, besides perhaps, "Choose us over the evil empire?" Moreover, Firefox -- as an open source application -- has no commercial underpinning, unlike Explorer. Google might need to create the same kind of bloatware to drive revenue.

Already Doing It

Goodger's statement came in a blog on Monday in which he wrote, "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."

Goodger's tone was nothing earthshaking and Google's competitors do not find the job announcement to be necessarily the precursor to a Google browser. "It wouldn't be too hard to put one together," said Ask Jeeves vice president of products Daniel Read. He says his company's search engine and related products are optimized for Firefox. "You can download an Ask Jeeves plug-in," he told NewsFactor.

"We're here to provide great experiences for our users," he added. When it comes to adding services, Read says, "You can buy them, build them or lease them. We don't need a browser."