GOOGLE PICKS GATES' BRAINS

By STEPHEN LYNCH

Google, $1.67 billion richer from its August initial public offering, is spending its money poaching the brightest minds from arch-rival Microsoft and other tech giants.

Based on the half-dozen hires in recent weeks, Google appears to be planning to launch its own Web browser and other software products to challenge Microsoft.

Google has wooed Joshua Bloch, one of the main developers of the Internet programming language Java, from Sun Microsystems.

The company also hired four people who worked on Microsoft's Web browser, Internet Explorer, and later founded their own company. One of them, Adam Bosworth, is credited with being a driving force not only behind IE, but Microsoft's database-management program, Access.

Most recently, Google grabbed Joe Beda, the lead developer on Avalon, Microsoft's code name for the user interface that will part of the next version of Windows, called Longhorn.

Beda even keeps an online diary of what it's like to be a "Noogler," as new Google employees are called. He won't reveal what he's working on but mentions that each Noogler is given a hat with a propeller on the top.

"Google is a magnetic pull for smart technology people," said Gary Stein, an analyst with Jupiter Research. "They're really trying to broaden their tech base. This is all about putting smart kids in a Google sandbox."

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News source: NY post