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Houses and Chrome – Interviewing Ben Goodger
By Jakob Færch | September 28, 2008
Ben Goodger was formerly known as the project lead behind the Mozilla Firefox Browser. Since 2005 he’s been working at Google, most recently as part of the lead team behind Google’s new browser, Chrome. Monday at 11:30 Ben talks about the process of creating Google Chrome’s end user experience in his talk Google Chrome: The Invisible Browser.
What is your favorite programming language
I don’t really have a favorite language.
While on the Firefox team I’ve done a lot of Javascript, since the UI written in Javascript and XUL. Chrome is entirely done in C++, so the past two years has given me a lot of C++ experience.
Every language surely has its pros and cons. C++ is a very large language, there seems to be a lot of ways to shoot yourself in the foot. Luckily, the Google C++ style guide covers a lot, not only the aesthetic aspects of style, so it’s easier to avoid mistakes.
Regarding Javascript, I think the bar has been set quite high by Gmail and other applications. This has caused State of the Art, the techniques used in JavaScript for things like memory management and interaction with the browser as a platform, to evolve a lot over the last years. Having to write real applications in Javascript has made a lot of people treat Javascript as a real language.
What is your favorite spoken language?
I only know english, so I guess that would have to be it. I was born in London, but grew up in New Zealand. 5 years ago I moved to California to work for Netscape.
You were a central person in the Firefox development. How has it been for you to go work for what might be seen as a close competitor to the Mozilla browser?
It is an interesting question: Actually I’ve been through the same process before. When I joined the Firefox team, I was working on the Mozilla application – the integrated browser/calendar/mail suite. So back then I had to adjust myself to working on a different project it’s own identity and goals, although much of the technology was shared between the two projects had Of course, there’s a much bigger difference between Firefox and Chrome; the technology, the procedures and the culture are all very different. On Firefox, you really have all the enthusiasm of an open source project. Everybody is there because they’re interested. At Google, there’s an extremely high skill level. It really is a gift to work on a project with the capacity to hire people who are experts in their field, like for example Lars Bak.
How has the reaction been to your change of employer?
For me personally the change has not been very hard. I’m not so much personally attached to projects or products, as I’m interested in new things and technologies. As for the Mozilla people, a lot of the people I worked closely with are also on different projects, so there’s no reason for them to view me as working for “the enemy”. As a matter of fact, I know that the Mozilla organization welcomes the launch of the Chrome browser, giving people more choice of browser’s. I see Chrome as a way to offer more standard compliant browsers. Also, because of the Google brand, I think we can attract users who would never consider downloading and installing Firefox.
Which presentation will you definitely be attending?
The Lego Talk on Wednesday. I’ve built a lot of Lego models a kid – and I even keep a lot of the sets in boxes at my mother’s place. I’ve played around with the Digital Designer, and I find it really exciting to hear about some of the new stuff they’re building.
If you were not into software development, how would you be spending your work life?
My grandfather was a builder; I don’t know if that is what I would have become, but I’m pretty sure that it would be something around real estate. I think I would have liked working as an architect.
Currently I’m planning a refurbishment of my own house. I’ve got the old architectural drawings, and I really like studying them. It’s almost like code, with all this information encoded into it.
What is your favorite gadget?
I really used to be a gadget man, buying all this stuff. But my new iPhone freed me from having to carry both a phone and an iPod. It’s the only thing I’m sure to keep in my pocket these days, so I guess it really is the favorite gadget. The only thing missing to turn it into the perfect gadget is a radar detector to avoid speeding tickets.
The runner up for favorite gadget has got to be my car, an Infiniti M45. It’s a wonderful car, but I really bought it because of all the internal gadget – the Navigation system, the rear camera for reversing and so on.
