Under the name of Boot to Gecko (B2G), the new OS will take the Gecko HTML rendering engine of Mozilla’s Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client and build around it a wholly open source project capable of running atop Android-compatible hardware thanks to re-use of a few nuggets of low-level code from that OS.
The B2G project is still at a very early stage but the outline of something complex and unusual can be discerned form the blog comments that announced it.
Its foundation will be to use open web standards rather than “single-vendor stacks”, risky given the immaturity of that environment, but consistent with Mozilla’s open web vision.
The development team announced four areas that are needed to get Boot to Gecko off the ground, including new APIs to tie the underlying Android hardware layer to software for interfaces such as telephony, storage, cameras, and networking comms. Security design is also a key issue; source code resulting from all development will be released in real time.
“This project is in its infancy; some pieces of it are only captured in our heads today, others aren’t fully explored. We’re talking about it now because we want expertise from all over Mozilla - and from people who aren’t yet part of Mozilla - to inform and build the project we’re outlining here,” announced the Mozilla project team.
As is the nature of open source, the exact direction of future development will depend to some extent on those who contribute to it.
Whatever B2G turns into, perhaps its biggest challenge isn’t to Android itself but to Google’s model for developing that operating system, which sees source code released at the company leisure in a way that some believe has fragmented application development across different versions. The pointed release of source code as development proceeds is a backhanded reference to frustrations at Google’s approach.
“We want to do Boot to Gecko the way we think open source should be done. In the open, from day 1, for everyone to see and participate,” said Mozilla project leader, Andreas Gal.
Boot to Gecko is also a way of proposing not just a market alternative to established proprietary mobile operating systems, but a different direction altogether, one centred on web applications.
It has some similarities to Google’s own ChromeOS – in other words the belief that web applications will be the foundation of future operating systems – and could turn into a slightly different version of the same thing minus the association with a single commercial interest.
Boot to Gecko will attract a lot of interest but hurdles remain. The pace of development will be watched very closely on the gitub project repository.
They also claim that Facebook has "no penetration into the search market" which ignores Facebook's close ties with Microsoft and integration with Bing, never mind the recent partnership between Bing and Baidu.
Productivity and communication
Google has a plethora of online productivity and communications services: Google Docs, Gmail, Google Chat, Google Voice, etc. Google+ and Google+ Business Profiles will ostensibly give Google an opportunity to integrate these into a cohesive whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Fair enough, but Facebook has Microsoft and Skype (soon to be one and the same). Facebook is already integrated with Microsoft Office Web Apps for productivity, and with Skype for video chat. I don't know the actual numbers, but I am fairly sure that Microsoft Office has a few more users than Google Docs, and my experience with Google Docs left a little something to be desired when trying to work in a Microsoft Office world.
E-Commerce
Mitaru and Wenzel cite the Google Checkout payment system as a factor in favour of Google+ Business Profiles as an e-commerce platform. I see it as limited, and an opportunity for Google to lock businesses in to using Google Checkout.
My peers go on to point out that Facebook only offers e-commerce through third party tools like TabJuice, and paint that as a negative. The e-commerce landscape is much larger than TabJuice, including other vendors such as Payvment, and Facebook has e-commerce ties with both eBay and Amazon who are two of the biggest names in online commerce. The scope and variety of e-commerce options give Facebook the advantage.
Advertising and analytics
Google has a dominant pseudo-monopoly in online advertising to rival its dominant pseudo-monopoly of online search. Google AdWords, and the growing empire of Google online and mobile advertising services, are a force that businesses can't ignore. However, the points made by my peers only explain why Google AdWords will remain a tour de force, they don't have any relation to Google+ Business Profiles.
The same is true for Google Analytics. It is a great service and a valuable tool. It is more mature and has broader reach across the web than Facebook Pages Insights, but the Facebook Pages Insights offer tremendous analytics for all it is intended for: Facebook Pages.
Don't hold your breath
The article by Mitaru and Wenzel has some other questionable points. For example, it speculates that Google will simply integrate Google+ Business Profiles and Google Places, while Facebook is allegedly struggling to get businesses to merge Facebook Places and Facebook Pages to achieve similar synergy.
I don't doubt that Google will just do that, which is part of what makes Google+ creepy and undesirable. Google will take bold liberties in merging and integrating services whether you like it or not, while Facebook leaves it up to each business to merge services, or grant permission to third party services on a case by case basis.
Facebook has the audience with over 750 million users. Facebook has services in place equivalent to virtually everything Google can throw into Google+, some of it just needs to be tweaked or repackaged to shift the focus. If there are gaps, Facebook has can form partnerships and alliances as it has done with Microsoft, Skype, Amazon and eBay.
From a business perspective, Facebook Pages trumps Google+ Profiles because businesses are already invested and established there. Facebook also has an advantage because of its close ties with Microsoft. Google+ is impressive on some levels, and it will most likely be the primary competitor for Facebook for the foreseeable future. But don't hold your breath waiting for Google to crush or trump Facebook any time soon.
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