One of the great advantages of Chrome is its openness. Yes, it allows developers to look more fully at the code for their own purposes, developing stable web applications; in fact, Google is relying on this advantage for their Google Chrome OS, which runs off nothing more than those web extensions and apps. However, the open nature also allows users to help Google develop the Chrome browser more fully, especially when it comes to pointing out any bugs. The issue here for Google is incentivizing the community to find these issues, and they’ve found a pretty “leet” way to do it.
The trend was first set by Firefox, who awarded users who found critical bugs with a hefty cash prize of $500. Google, being the massive giant it is, has upped the stakes and awards users with as much as $1,337 (or, “leet” money). The $1,337 rewards were few and far between, designed for only very serious bugs. However, there’s a level even about “leet” that we’ve justed witness — a $3,133.70 prize (that’s “elite” in geek talk) designed for “SecSeverity-Critical bugs.” They also noted that the increase in the cash reward was a reflection of how difficult these bugs can be to find in sandbox.
Nonetheless, one Sergey Glazunov managed to track one down, and was rewarded with the big prize. “Critical bugs are harder to come by in Chrome, but Sergey has done it,” read the official Google post on the topic, announcing the high level of reward being given to Glazunov, a community member working on Chromium who works outside Google. Google awards these prizes to both employees and anyone else who qualifies, and the fact that this major first was to a non-Googler certainly speaks to their unbiased approach in the matter.
