Web Development Magazine

Google’s Freeze-Up

Apparently, sometime this month, possibly incredibly soon, Google could be completely freezing up, not updating anything until after the New Year. Is this good, bad, or does it really mean nothing?

Well, it’s not really good, but it’s also not very bad, but it definitely means something… It means that Google will put a stop to all innovation for a couple of weeks. In anticipation of this, Google’s been pumping out activity… A lot of stuff has been behind the scenes, but some stuff, such as their impending redesign, have been all over the ‘net.
Well, it seems they’re gearing up for hibernation… Publishing code as a squirrel gathers nuts, trying to make up for all the lost time in advance. Wave invites have been going out like mad, Google Chrome has been officially released for all platforms (now in beta for Mac and Linux), and they’ve added Tweets to their search results… All of this, on top of some other stuff, is Google’s preparation for some downtime.
But will the competition sleep?

Bing has been gaining a bit of ground lately, with the recent release of Bing Maps, and even a Mozilla executive suggesting that users start using Bing instead of Google… With all this momentum, it’s not likely they’ll be put to sleep by some flurries and multicoloured lights. Will the preemptive buildup by Google be enough to hold them through their code freeze, or will they lose ground this holiday season?
Obviously, speculation is all we have as of now.

Would the code freeze be official policy within the company, though? This is something I’m personally curious about… The Google bees will still be working, but the code freeze will stop them from updating any of Google’s projects for the public. But what if they come up with something really innovative? Will they have to wait for the ice to melt to implement it, or can there be exceptions?
On top of that, will Google Chrome for Mac OS X be upgraded to allow for extensions? Because… Come on, we need them!

Back to the original question… I don’t really see how this can be good at all, to tell you the truth. I’m thinking from all angles… It can’t turn out to be incredibly negative, but what good can come of it?
When it comes down to it, it just means that Google’s taking a break from publishing new code, allowing the competitors to step in with new features in their absence.

The code freeze policy has been confirmed, albeit off the record, by Google employees, according to TechCrunch. Of course, we’re not quite sure when it will begin… It could have already, we really don’t know.
Either way, we’ll just have to bundle up and wait through to see what happens, if anything… I might just join them in hibernation.