Internet Founding Father Joins Google

[Zeus_Hunt]

The man widely known as a "founding father" of the Internet is now a Google employee. Vinton Cerf, the man who helped co-found TCP/IP, the system that routes Internet traffic, will join the search giant as Chief Internet Evangelist.

Cerf said he would continue his work in leadership roles within the Internet community including chairman at ICANN, as well as his work as a visiting scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to figure out ways to connect the Internet to outer space.

At Google, Cerf will be tasked with building out the company's network infrastructure and assisting in the development of Google's line of applications above and beyond its core search business.

Google hired Cerf away from MCI, where he spent 11 years working on networking technologies, and most recently served as vice president of technology strategy. He said MCI's proposed sale to Verizon had no bearing on his decision to leave the company.

"This medium will enjoy wider-spread use than television, radio or phones, and will ultimately expand beyond planet Earth," Cerf said. "Google has always believed in doing things differently, and I believe that places us in a unique position to help bring even the wildest Internet visions into reality."

The addition to Cerf follows a string of big-name hirings for Google. In recent months, the company has hired away executives from rivals like Microsoft, sparking a legal battle between the two.

Google is also hiring Firefox developers away from Mozilla, fueling speculation that the search giant may be working on a Web browser of its own.

I think right now Google is the best company to work for in the world.....

[Zeus_Hunt]

Why would two different companies, one dealing with the organizing of the worldwide information and the other specialized in operating systems and software applications, fight about?

At first glance, for no reason! But the truth is that Google has become Microsoft’s number one enemy. And not necessarily because Microsoft wants a piece of the online ad action or because Google has been hiring several Microsoft ex-engineers. Actually, the Kai Fu Lee lawsuit was the last straw in the conflict between the two giants and this is the first time when Microsoft was able to take Google to the court of law, where the Redmond giant feels most comfortable.

But the conflict between Microsoft and Google goes much deeper than that. As long as Google has stayed in the online searching business, Microsoft has had nothing against the ‘do no evil’ company. But lately, Google has

started to release software, to explore new domains, to invent new methods of using the PC, and that is already too much to take for Microsoft.

Google has all the chances of becoming Microsoft’s biggest nightmare, perhaps even bigger than Linux or Apple. And that’s because Google is unpredictable. With Linux and Apple, things were pretty clear for Microsoft. The companies are fighting over operating systems, a game where Microsoft knows all the rules and the dirty tricks. You run another Get The Facts campaign, in which you prove that Linux is more expensive than Windows Server, you partner with some companies to launch a MP3 player able to beat iPod, in other words, you’re in a business where you always have solutions.

But what do you do when you’re dealing with an opponent which doesn’t make operating systems and which doesn’t depend on you, but on the Internet? What can you do? Block the www.google.com address in the Internet Explorer? (Don’t you think that everybody would immediately switch to Firefox?) Buy them? Buy somebody who knows, at least as good as Google, to search the Internet? There’s nobody else for sale!

Moreover, you never know what Google will come up next and what’s even scarier is that they have enough money to accomplish overnight whatever they dream of. Obviously, Microsoft’s officials have more clues than us, mortals, on what Google is planning next in its laboratories and what’s more, I don’t think they’re comfortable with what they know.

Bill Gates even admitted in an interview that among all the companies Microsoft has gone up against, Google is the one that looks the most like...Microsoft. The bottom line is that they are determined and stubborn enough to pursue their goal regardless of the consequences.

Ah! If only Google limited itself to searching! But the search engine has an appetite for domains, where Microsoft didn’t dare to venture in. Microsoft’s latest acquisition in the VoIP field, surely had something to do with Google’s IM client.

If you like metaphors, the conflict between Google and Microsoft is a conflict between generations. Google is run by young entrepreneurs, who no longer regard the PC as something they have to conquer; for them, it’s merely a tool. (After all, you can access Google using your cell phone, and most of them are not running Windows Mobile 5.0, but Symbian). Microsoft can’t get over the fact that the PC is not the center of the universe and the company still depends on hardware sales.

There is no doubt that Microsoft conquered the PC, but Google is giving it a whole new meaning. So, what can you do? You can make bellicose statements and threat that Google will die by your hand. Hmm…that would be the solution! But how? Here’s a question Microsoft would pay millions of dollars to find the answer to.

[Myrak]

Woo, nice read. :rolleyes:

[Samurai]

Would be awesome if Google actually started making an OS. I for one would be the first to welcome it and try it out.

[Guest oxygenuk]

The farther of the net eh.

*bows down to him*

[Chicano666]

Would be awesome if Google actually started making an OS. I for one would be the first to welcome it and try it out.

Word ese.