Google released an open source browser called Chrome.  The details of the browser are explained in Google’s electronic comic where the new browser was designed around the philosophy of meeting the needs of Today’s internet user.  The browser is currently available on Windows, versions for Mac and Linux will soon follow.  I personally find the browser very fast which is attributable to the way the browser is multi processed and renders the separate tabs.  

This move makes sense for Google’s business given the threats posed by Microsoft’s IE8 of not displaying Google’s Adwords properly, in fact it would probably make sense at some point for Gogle to start competing in Operating Systems, ISPs and PCs in order to get more market share and drive revenue growth.

It also explains why Google bought a browser technology company years ago. A controversial oversight which made the headlines were Google’s “do no evil” terms of service where Google would own all the rights to anything the user performed whilst using the browser.  So if you did some online banking, Google would have the right to access your bank account.  Fortunately, Google saw sense and updates the licensing agreements.

I think ultimately, the move is going to hurt Firefox more than anybody else.  IE will still take a huge beating as most people and more importantly companies (as the largest buyers of PC technology) have strict ICT policies which means employees are forced to use the default IE browser.  As long as that remains unchanged – Microsoft will dominate the browser wars.