Chrome takes aim at IE, Windows

With the release of Chrome dominating headlines all over the world, far less coverage was given to a new deal reached last week between Google and Firefox creator Mozilla.

Google Chrome beta: a first look

Google has renewed its partnership deal with the Mozilla foundation, effectively funding it for another three years until November 2011.

Google pays Mozilla for using it as Firefox's default search engine and the deal gives Mozilla an extra year to secure funding from a source other than Google.

Although on paper Google's new browser looks to be a ready-made match for Firefox as both are open source, it appears that Google sees Microsoft as its primary target, said Laurent Lachal, an analyst with Ovum.

"Chrome challenges not just Microsoft's IE browser but also its Windows Desktop by supporting richer web applications less dependent on standard operating systems," Lachal said.

As to whether Chrome will stand the test of time, Lachal said: "Chrome is only an experiment, in line with Google's usual approach to try various offerings and see which ones stick."

"We expect success but it will be much more gradual and slow than most suppose and more likely in the mobile browser space than in the Desktop one," he added.

Research from web-monitoring firm Hitwise revealed that searches for Google's new browser accounted for 0.06 per cent of all UK internet visits, making it the 130th most-visited website yesterday.

It was still well behind Firefox and Internet Explorer, but then the browser only became available to download late yesterday evening.

Download Google Chrome from www.google.com/chrome

www.ovum.com
www.hitwise.com