Google hopes Go will give a browser boost
Google, ever eager to renovate the computing industry for the benefit of the Web and its own business, is working to link two nascent but potentially significant projects, its experimental Go programming language and its Chrome Web browser.
Gordon, Go's gopher mascot
Specifically, the company is building a foundation to let programs written in Go run directly within a Web browser endowed with Google's Native Client software. Native Client is designed to let browser-based programs run faster than is possible with today's widely used JavaScript; though it's still in its early stages, it's built into Chrome and available as a plug-in for other browsers.
A little poking around the Go source code reveals a reference to NaCl, the abbreviated name for Native Client. And Native Client is indeed on the Go agenda, said Rob Pike, one of the five core members of the Go team, in a Wednesday interview.
"We have an embryonic implementation of the NaCl support for Go using 8g," a compiler that produces code for x86 chips such as Intel's Core line, Pike said. "It's restricted by a couple of details of NaCl's implementation, but we hope to see changes to NaCl one day that will make Go a full-fledged language in that environment."
The Native Client compiler--the tool that converts what people write into software a computer can run--is specially modified to screen out a variety of software instructions that could expose a computer to an attack from a Native Client module downloaded off the Web. And the Native Client software itself checks such modules before they run. The result, if the security approach stands up to security scrutiny, is browser-based software that runs close to the speed of ordinary software that runs natively on a PC.
Native Client has been maturing, the most recent stage being inclusion of NaCl within Google's Chrome browser, though disabled by default for now. Google is using Chrome as a vehicle to distribute other Web technology, too, including Gears, which can let people use Gmail while offline, and WebGL, which gives hardware acceleration to 3D graphics in the browser.
Go is only experimental at this stage, but Google hopes to use it to produce some of the software running on its vast array of servers. Google's scale makes even academic projects potentially commercially relevant, which is enviable to many companies who've tried to get projects off the ground.
Indeed, an episode earlier in the Go team's history is illustrative. Pike, Unix co-inventor Ken Thompson, and Russ Cox all worked on the Plan 9 operating system project that, like Unix, began at Bell Labs. (Yes, Plan 9 is named after Ed Wood's famously bad movie, "Plan 9 from Outer Space.")
Unlike Unix, Plan 9 didn't have much commercial success, although Vita Nuova does sell a version called Inferno. Getting a mainstream operating system off the ground is hard: you must convince programmers, software companies, and hardware makers to embrace it; you must convince people to use it in the real world; and you must keep pace with the evolution of entrenched operating systems.
A bit of Plan 9 lives on inside the Go project, with various Plan 9 tidbits appearing in the Go source code. Pike, though, says there's not much.
Glenda, the Plan 9 bunny mascot, looks similar to Gordon, Go's gopher mascot. Both were drawn by Rob Pike's wife, illustrator Renee French.
(Credit: Bell Labs)"The 6g/8g/5g compilers are almost completely new but are tied to the open-source Plan 9 compiler suite's C compilers and linker," Pike said. "That's really about it except for the obvious historical connection for some of the protagonists: Ken, Russ, and myself."
Programming languages face similar challenges as operating systems in getting off the ground: A lot of interdependent elements in the ecosystem must all be built simultaneously. It's what's known in the trade as the chicken-and-egg problem: you can't make a chicken without an egg or vice versa.
But Google makes things different for Go. It's devoting real resources to the project and believes it could be useful on its own servers to run software such as the Gmail service Web browsers tap into. It's got the chicken and the egg under its own roof.
And with the money Google could save by increasing the performance or efficiency of its servers even just a fraction of a percent, it has abundant financial incentive to make things work.
Marrying Go to browsers is just another aspect of the same issue.
Assuming Go and Native Client mature enough to be useful, Google can't mandate that Web developers embrace them; indeed, they generally haven't embraced Gears even though it can help with some Web site matters. But again, Google has a browser and some awfully big Web sites it can use to get the ball rolling.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
Good luck Google. I hope it takes off and Unix/Linux becomes the new platform for the future.
While google has good intentions right now it really doesn't take a whole lot for the company to completely change its philosophy with new management. Look at how yahoo strayed because more wall street centric management took over. If google got all the power and then some know nothing about tech ceo came on board and just want good quarterly earnings we will suffer.
Between C(++), Java (script), PHP and Basic you can do almost anything quite well. These also account for about 70% of all the code written.
Google seems to like a good challenge and they have a big one here...
Street view.. check
Search... check
Creepy latitude letting you know where your friends are .. check
Free Voice calling in the US ... check
Email with push notifications to your mobile ... check
Picasa photo editor / storage ... check
Instant messaging ... check
Docs ... check
Youtube ... check
Phone operating system ... check
Google Earth ... check
Panoramio ... check..
Shall i keep going ??
Yeah, google should really branch out from the search engine department ..
Furthermore, i think you should send an email to google asking for your money back..
While I agree that there is a certain amount of tendency within the geek community to tear down the biggest target I do think that there are some valid criticisms of Google. For me, personally, my chief concern is that Google is only a technology company in as much as its a useful method to promote their primary business - which is advertising. Search, mail, chrome, and many other initiatives are directly related to the accumulation of data to provide more targeted advertising and enhancing the experience a user has when interacting with advertising. Some people are okay with this. Me? Not so much.
So, since you are not ok with Google collecting money for search via advertising, how would you propose they collect money?
And when you do a web search, what do you use? some company that doesn't advertise?
There are too much aspects to say that they aren't the same! I think Google is the only company in technologyworld that tries to change existing and bad sectors on the net! Hip hip hip!!
Street view.. check
Search... check
Creepy latitude letting you know where your friends are .. check
Free Voice calling in the US ... check
Email with push notifications to your mobile ... check
Picasa photo editor / storage ... check
Instant messaging ... check
Docs ... check
Youtube ... check
Phone operating system ... check
Google Earth ... check
Panoramio ... check..
Web browser ... check
Shall i keep going ??
Yeah, google should really branch out from the search engine department ..
Furthermore, i think you should send an email to google asking for your money back..
But you wouldn't do that. You would google a particular method in C or some specific syntax. You would never generalize a search that much would you?
Why?
All a browser application can do, at this day and age of 2009, does still not go greatly beyond of what GUI applications could do in the '90s. Not many people write GUI applications any more these, even though applications in a browser are severely limited in what they can do. Try to run a full word-processor in a browser and you know what I am talking about, its not possible. Even though I like Google-docs, it does not come close in what's needed.
To expect that this will always be so, is a fallacy, that one would attribute to the thinking strategems of used-car-sales-men, like Steve Ballmer from the Microsoft ilk.
No, here is fresh air! Google, innovative in its approach, is having a go at changing this. No one knows if it will catch on, but I applaud them for the attempt trying to give the users on their browsers a richer experience.
Go Google go!
Arthur
- by boothsim November 13, 2009 1:28 PM PST
- Seriously? Their mascot is gordon the gopher?
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(22 Comments)They should seriously have GOOGLED it and found that it was an annoying 90's kids tv puppet in the UK; no voice, the damn thing just squeaked.