The last time young internet hotshot Ben Goodger returned home to Auckland he took the time to climb on to the roof of the Herald to appear in some photographs. Sitting cross-legged, he wore thick-rimmed glasses and a T-shirt with the word "Firefox" printed boldly across it.

The University of Auckland graduate has made a name for himself in the US internet industry as lead software engineer on Mozilla's Firefox internet web browser, which is rapidly gaining popularity. Some analyst groups put its market share at just over the 5 per cent threshold. Now he's set to jump aboard another leading internet company - Google

Goodger revealed on his website (Ben's Weblogs - see link below ) this week that his "source of income" had changed from Mozilla to Google from January 10.

As Goodger explained of his new working arrangements: "While I will be spending more time at Google, I will work out of the Mozilla Foundation offices regularly as the need arises. For all questions regarding Google, I ask that you contact Google directly, rather than myself.

"My role with Firefox and the Mozilla project will remain largely unchanged, I will continue doing much the same work as I have described above - with the new goal of successful 1.1, 1.5 and 2.0 releases.

I remain devoted full-time to the advancement of Firefox, the Mozilla platform and web browsing in general."

Goodger's move to Google is great news for two reasons. For one, a Kiwi may well now have a hand in steering a strategic project at what has become one of the most innovative internet companies and one that late last year completed a very successful stock exchange listing.

His move into the Google camp also is a clue for the direction Google is heading - the development of its own web browser.

Unconfirmed rumours have circulated for some time that Google has its own browser in development. Small details, such as Google registering the "growser" domain, hint at its intentions.

Firefox is hot at the moment. More than 20 million copies of Firefox 1.0 have been downloaded since November, 300,000 on the first day alone. And for Goodger to turn his attention away from Mozilla is testament to the opportunity Google has laid before him.

At a minimum, it appears almost certain that Google has a collaboration with Mozilla in the works, perhaps incorporating all of Google's search features into the Firefox browser.

Rather than clicking through favourites in Firefox to get to Gmail, your own web log or the Google search engine, all of these services would likely be integrated into the browser with individual icons.