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May 29, 2007

Google Bringing Anti-Virus Tools to Google Desktop?

Duncan Riley

33 comments »

greenborder.jpgGoogle has continued on its acquisition blitzkrieg with news that Google has acquired Mountain View neighbor GreenBorder for an undisclosed sum.

GreenBorder launched in 2001 with “Desktop DMZ” software for Windows that prevents any viruses, trojans or spyware from being installed during any browser session. GreenBorder keeps all browsing activity system independent from Windows and free for deletion without system compromise.

GreenBorder operates as a signature-less approach that never needs updating and provides continuous protection against issues with a presence literally indicated by a green border around a web browser.

The purchase may indicate a renewed focus by Google on desktop applications. GreenBorder provides an anti-virus platform that combined with Google Desktop would deliver a more compelling download and strength Google’s position as a desktop applications competitor to Microsoft.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 2:35 am and is filed under Web 2.0 News & Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. TechVision

    May 29th, 2007 at 4:27 am

  2. 苦牢之最後一年

    May 29th, 2007 at 6:46 am

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    May 29th, 2007 at 8:20 am

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    May 30th, 2007 at 3:54 am

  6. Viruses | HiTechFusion

    April 27th, 2008 at 11:47 pm

  7. Complete List of 2007 Web / Technology Acquisitions » The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp

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Comments

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  1. dribller

    May 29th, 2007 at 4:18 am

    and that anti-virus would be free? that woul be cool…

  2. john

    May 29th, 2007 at 4:54 am

    logo like National geographic :-)

  3. Yohay

    May 29th, 2007 at 5:00 am

    GScan? GProtector? GDefender?

  4. bdb

    May 29th, 2007 at 5:01 am

    nice call on the logo….

    Where’s the coverage of the FTC’s investigation of doubleclick acquisition? There has to have been some MS/ Y! wrangling with the government to cause this. Give us the dirt!

  5. Ali

    May 29th, 2007 at 5:52 am

    I already get free antivirus, F-Secure, from my ISP.

  6. Neil

    May 29th, 2007 at 6:13 am

    a google browser will need a USP, and this could be it….I think it spells bad news for Firefox.

  7. Mitch Cohen

    May 29th, 2007 at 6:22 am

    I agree with Neil, I feel like this could be a signal of an upcoming Google browser, no necessarily a desktop app.

  8. xxdesmus

    May 29th, 2007 at 6:46 am

    I couldn’t disagree more with Neil.

    We all know that any Google browser will be covered in context based ads.

    I for one (and I know plenty of other people would agree with me) will never use such a disgusting ad-ridden product when a free, clean, quality product like Firefox exists.

    @Michael Birch please die. Thanks.

  9. Neil

    May 29th, 2007 at 7:00 am

    .no the brower won’t have to have ads in at all. It just needs to have Google as the default search engine. If Firefox is making 100 Million a year from this, then why can’t google take back some of the pie. After the current bubble pops, I’m sure people are going to think that 100 mill is actually a nice amount of money. Also, Google can show more contextually appropriate ads (not more ads per se) by linking browser activity and contextual ad serving. The one thing google doesn’t have a grip on at the moment, is what users do once they leave the search engine - sure they are getting a better understading via Google analytics but bearing in mind they are planning on a phone, a browser seems quite a small step to be honest - more like “why didnt they do the ages ago?”

  10. pallet jack

    May 29th, 2007 at 7:02 am

    Why couldn’t they buy AntiVAst - its my fav free antivirus …. has a boot scan and everything -

    RB

  11. DinoHorse

    May 29th, 2007 at 7:13 am

    I honestly don’t like Google going into the security industry. Antivirus and Security related solutions should be governed by industry specific companies, not I-Do-It-All companies like Google.

  12. David Scott Lewis

    May 29th, 2007 at 8:51 am

    Too bad they didn’t buy Blink. But GreenBorder was still a great choice. I’m looking forward to having sandbox protection couple with Google Desktop.

  13. matt

    May 29th, 2007 at 9:46 am

    Google Desktop aggressively protects all of the default search settings in Internet Explorer and Firefox (setting them to Google and keeping them there). I think some of what they do crosses the line into malware territory.

  14. Crenk

    May 29th, 2007 at 9:55 am

    I am looking foward to seeing this in the google pack!

    http://www.crenk.com

  15. UpstartThis

    May 29th, 2007 at 10:24 am

    Google’s acquisition of GreenBorder is a strategic move towards their view of accessing any data anywhere. Now that they have all kinds of data, they may be having some ideas of caching, storing and security it locally on our machines. Whether its a browser of google Desktop, Google wants to have users glued to its brand for anything that revolves over data. So tomorrow we can think of data and right away refer to Google’s software.

  16. jc

    May 29th, 2007 at 10:59 am

    Should be interesting what type of direction they take this, free, or pay. I say it’s great for desktop folks.

  17. Munir Umrani

    May 29th, 2007 at 12:22 pm

    What is the purpose of Michael Birch’s comment? How does racial slurs add to the conversation about Google buying GreenBorder?

  18. Ron Palmeri

    May 29th, 2007 at 12:52 pm

    Congrats Bernard and team. hope it was a nice outcome.

  19. kundojjala

    May 29th, 2007 at 2:05 pm

    hope it’ll not be a disaster like One care..

  20. RaJesh Anandakrishnan

    May 29th, 2007 at 3:51 pm

    Another Free software from google. Don’t know will it be as powerful as mcafee or other giants

    http://www.suggestusability.com

  21. David Scott Lewis

    May 29th, 2007 at 7:20 pm

    What would be really, truly cool is if Google bought Spyware Doctor or Spy Sweeper (i.e., PC Tools, Webroot), kept up with the technology, and gave it away for free. Ad-Aware wouldn’t be a bad choice, either. Let’s face it, GreenBorder alone isn’t enough.

    Let’s go further: AVG Anti-Virus and Anti-Rootkit (Grisoft) and Jetico Personal Firewall. Both are already free, but coupling them with a GAM (Google Anti-Malware) package would be great (and I suspect Grisoft and Jetico would welcome an acquisition by Google).

    Sandboxing by Greenborder. Anti-spyware by PC Tools or Webroot. Anti-virus and anti-rootkit by Grisoft. Firewall by Jetico.

    Next: TOR. Make it native. Of course, Google should be a key contributor to TOR’s infrastructure. And, finally, why not offer an OpenVPN solution? This seems like a natural for Google. (If they offer an OpenVPN solution, they don’t really need to offer TOR. No point, as long as they offer some level of anonymous surfing and random IP assignment.)

    Sandboxing. Anti-spyware. Anti-virus. Firewall. VPN. Winner: Google!!

    Bottom line: If Google controls our data, they should protect it as well. This was one of Microsoft’s greatest mistakes. Google’s approach: Protect me from getting cancer. Microsoft’s approach: Radical surgery after I get cancer. Which strategy do you prefer?

  22. David Mackey

    May 29th, 2007 at 7:25 pm

    Interesting move on Google’s part, especially considering Microsoft’s recent toward anti-virus protection with Forefront and OneCare.

  23. medina

    May 30th, 2007 at 12:29 pm

    can any one say - Ma bell {AT&T} what happened to them when they got too big??????
    As wonderful as all the Google wonder and improvements may sound - too much can be too much…….

  24. Alan Marks

    May 31st, 2007 at 6:58 am

    There is one thing that Google applications are good at:
    Taking information from other sources and installing it into the G-app.

    There is one thing that Google applications are bad at:
    Giving information to other applications.

    This means that you can transfer the information from other programs which you were using previously, but not transfer them out if you don’t want to use it any more. This means that people will often be stuck with somehting that they don’t want any more.

  25. Mario

    June 4th, 2007 at 12:19 pm

    Who uses this Desktop? Googol Deskbar more useful, that’s for sure.

  26. mcjsuavivq

    June 18th, 2007 at 6:37 pm

    Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! tlmyzbafybyxfs

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