Google browser takes on Microsoft

In what many see as a direct attack on the market share held by Microsoft, Google – the internet search engine giant – is today to launch its own web browser.

Google Chrome – as the browser will be known – represents the latest step in a continuing march forward as the Google empire expands further into the lucrative internet business market.

Microsoft is currently the market leader in internet browsers, with Internet Explorer holding a share of almost three quarters of the market. Google hopes to eat into this by a significant margin with Google Chrome.
    

Leaked information on a blog

The launch – at ‘beta’ stage – will roll out in over one hundred countries, and was ‘leaked’ in typical internet-geek style by the publishing on Google Blogoscoped, a popular internet blog, in the form of an illustrated comic book that gave the innovations and specifications of Google Chrome.

The new features include an updating of the traditional address bar features, a device that allows web pages to be previewed in thumbnail format, as well as the revising of the tab facility to a better format.
    

A major rethink of the browser

Chrome is thought to have been under development for at least two years, and the blog continued by expressing a desire to push innovation on the web and the need to ‘rethink’ the nature of the web browser.

The roll out will initially be for Windows users only, with other platforms to follow in due course.

Microsoft recently announced that it’s own new browser, Internet Explorer 8, will take a swipe at Google by featuring a privacy mode designed to hide the users previous website visiting history. This flies in the face of Google's well-known use of its search engine as a data-gathering tool.
    

Extended Mozilla partnership

Google has previously supported other browsers rather than having its own, in particular the popular ‘open-source’ browser Mozilla Firefox, and has recently extended the partnership with Mozilla for a further three years.

The internet market is seen as among the fastest growing market areas, and browsers are integral to the very nature of the web, enabling users to search for sites and information with efficiency and ease.

This move by Google puts it head to head with Microsoft in an area where the latter has many years of expertise and is the clear market leader. Google is expected to take a significant share of the market once Chrome becomes established as a web browser worldwide.