Google jumps into browser war

Mountain View, Calif. -- Competition among Web browsers increased substantially Tuesday with Google's release of Chrome, industry analysts said.

With Web searches now including cell phones and other devices, Chrome is designed as a universal portal to the Internet, The New York Times reported.

Chrome pits Google against Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the browser included on 90 percent of the personal computers sold. It also competes with, among others, Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox browser, which now commands 19 percent of the browser market.

In effect, Google and Mozilla are allies in the browser war. The two companies renewed a contract last week that makes Google Search the home page for the Firefox browser.

Analysts said Google would be content to force Microsoft into a defensive position, forcing the company to divert resources to the market it clearly dominates.

"It would be more surprising to me if Google didn't do something in the browser space," Mozilla CEO John Lilly said. "After all, Google is 100 percent on the Web."

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.