• by Shankar Gupta , July 6, 2005

Google will release a search toolbar application for the open source Firefox browser Thursday, according to an e-mail message that appeared late last week on a Web site for Mozilla developers.

The product will have roughly the same functionality as Google's toolbar for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, according to the e-mail, which was sent to Firefox distributors under the name of Google developer Fritz Schneider. Google did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

The new toolbar, like Internet Explorer, will allow users to search directly from it, and will also incorporate a spellchecker and translators. It won't include a pop-up blocker, Schneider's e-mail said; the Firefox browser already incorporates its own pop-up blocker.

Although this product will be the first official Google toolbar for Firefox, others in the open source community have already developed a similar program, called the Googlebar, which also mimics the toolbar that Google developed for Internet Explorer.

Jupiter Research analyst Gary Stein said the release of an official Google toolbar for Firefox could indicate that Google is cozying up to the open source and Firefox communities. Stein thought that the release of application programming interfaces--which allow coders to build on Google's Web applications, along with special events for open source programmers--also seems to be aimed at currying favor with open source developers. "They definitely try to court and make friends with and reach out to the open source community," Stein said.