Google, creator of the world's most popular internet search engine, has developed its own web browser in a challenge to Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer.
A test version of the new software, named Google Chrome, is to be available for download in more than 100 countries on Tuesday, Google announced on its corporate blog.
The company said its aim was to deliver a faster, more user-friendly and safer browser.
Web browsers are programs that allow computer users to navigate the internet. If Chrome is well-received, Google - which is already the top earner from online advertising and also offers programs and services from email to office software to virtually the entire globe - would further solidify its position in the industry.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft holds a virtual monopoly in operating systems, but their importance in the computing landscape is diminishing as Web-based programs become the starting point for many users.
Chrome will be an open-source product, meaning anyone can modify the software code and add features.
Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch called the browser market "highly competitive" and said he remained confident that consumers would stick with Microsoft's product.
Google executives have expressed concern over the years that Microsoft could use its dominant browser to route consumers to its own search engine, which has sputtered despite years of effort and billions of dollars in investment.
Explorer 8 enables a user to surf the Web without the sites he or she visits being tracked. Google and other Internet companies -- including Microsoft -- use such information to finely target the ads they display. People who use Chrome could give Google even more information about their online habits.
Launching a browser war with Microsoft is a bold move for Google because Microsoft controls nearly 75% of the market. It also could cause trouble for Firefox, a free browser that is gaining popularity but still trails far behind Explorer.
The nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, which manages Firefox, has benefited from engineering help and money from Google. In 2005, Google hired the lead engineer behind Firefox, who splits his time between Google and Mozilla. Just last week, the two extended their partnership, which makes Google the browser's default search engine, through 2011.
Also potentially vulnerable are Opera and Apple Inc.'s Safari, which have captured much smaller fractions of the user population.
News about Chrome broke Monday after the website Google Blogoscoped reported receiving a comic book from Google that outlined the details of the new browser. A Google blog post later explained that it had inadvertently released the news. "We believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the Web," the post said.
The browser, which Google says was built from scratch, has been in the works for two years. It is intended as a "modern platform for Web pages and applications" that can run faster and be more responsive, the post said.
Firefox has managed to build its market share substantially over the last few years, with most estimates suggesting it has at least 25% of Net users now use it as their main browser. It seems unlikely that it can displace Microsoft's Internet Explorer from the top slot, but the fact that most of the noticeable front-end improvement in IE8 are copied from similar features in Firefox shows the benefits of having a healthy competitor.
Chrome isn't going to help out there. While Google has been a major backer of Firefox, providing funding and coders, and apparently plans to remain so, adding another competitor to the mix isn't going to do much for Firefox market . For casual Internet users who go on brand name and manage to look past IE, who do you think they're going to go with: the familiar Google brand name or something named after a lizard?
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