Google's anti-phishing tech coming to Firefox

[geekerati]

Remains competitive are the words of the day.

When Google hired lead Firefox developer Ben Goodger last year, speculation began running rampant that the company was poised to offer a Web browser of its own. In the year since the announcement, such a browser has not materialized, but Google's support of Firefox has brought some tangible improvements to the browser. One of these, Google Safe Browsing, will soon be part of the Mozilla trunk and will provide anti-phishing services to Firefox.

Safe Browsing helps to prevent phishing scams through the use of both a blacklist of known bad sites and automated technologies that make their best guess about a site's intentions. Such a tool could be a big help to novice users, especially, as phishing attacks continue to grow in both numbers and in sophistication. The Anti-Phishing Working Group estimates that 1700 phishing sites were active in December 2004. One year later, that number rose to more than 7000. While technically savvy users are unlikely to be taken in by an e-mail that directs them to www.g00gle.com, many casual users of the 'Net are less discriminating.

So what's in it for Google? Obviously, any tools that can make the Internet safer for casual users have the potential to increase Google's bottom line. If people aren't using the Web, they're not looking at Google ads or using Google services like Froogle. But there's something else to work here: the competition with Internet Explorer 7. Though IE has languished in the technology doldrums for years, Microsoft's new update looks set to provide it with much of the functionality of other browsers like Firefox and Opera. And if history is any indication, a "good enough" implementation of key features such as tabbed browsing is all that's necessary to keep people using IE on Windows.

Though IE 7 is playing catch up in many ways, it will come with anti-phishing technology, so the incorporation of Google's Safe Browsing will ensure that Firefox remains competitive. Because Google delivers its advertising and services through the Web, it has a strong interest in ensuring that access to the Web does not rely on products provided by its rival Microsoft. A vibrant Firefox is an important strategic asset to Google and is apparently worth enough that they are willing to contribute serious cash to its development. Whether Firefox can continue to grow its market share once Microsoft unleashes IE 7 on the public remains to be seen, but with companies like Google providing full-time engineering support to the project, it's certainly possible.

Arstechnica