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Google's Chrome to contend with Explorer

Tuesday 02 September 2008

Google, Inc. introduced its own Web browser on Tuesday, in a move that will rival Microsoft’s omnipresent 'Internet Explorer'. 'Google Chrome' will be initially launched in beta version in 100 countries, according to Google's official blog.

Google, Inc. announced it will launch its own Web browser, named Google Chrome, on Tuesday. The new browser, described by its developers as a platform designed to better support video and web-based applications, is available for free download in 100 countries.

The new browser is viewed as the latest direct challenge to Microsoft Corp, whose browser Internet Explorer is used by about 75 percent of Web visitors worldwide.

 
The new Web browser will initially only be available for use with Microsoft’s Windows operating system. On its official blog Google said it was “hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux,” and that it would “continue to make it even faster and more robust.”

Google Inc. has unveiled Chrome as a browser redesigned from scratch to the meet the modern-day demands of Web users especially in terms of video, the most popular media. The first Web browsers were created to support text and graphics, but the latest browsers are built to respond to the increased use of video, television and gaming on the Internet.

 
‘Chrome’ organizes the information it displays into tabbed pages, a feature popularized by newer browsers such as Firefox and quickly adopted by Internet Explorer. Web programs can be launched in their own dedicated windows, preventing one crashed window from terminating an entire Web session.

 
Taking another cue from Firefox, Google Inc has made Chrome open source, allowing any user to freely modify and improve the code of the program.

BATTLE OF BROWSERS

The fist version of a Web browser for the Internet search engine giant Google Inc, Chrome is the latest in a growing list of products and tools Google has developed to counter its industry rival Microsoft Corp.

Building on the popularity of Google’s search engine, which accounts for two-thirds of all Internet searches, the company has regularly tried to undercut the domination of Microsoft by offering similar products that can be downloaded and used for free.

Google had previously supported Firefox, a Web browser developed by the open-source Mozilla Foundation. Strengthened by an advertising partnership with Google’s search engine, Firefox now ranks as the second most popular browser behind Internet Explorer.

Microsoft is now also poised to unveil the latest version of its ubiquitous browser, Internet Explorer 8. For this latest incarnation Microsoft is highlighting private browsing, enabling users to easily escape cookies which record Web visitors’ habits and assuring anonymity of pages viewed and search history.