WASHINGTON: Google on Tuesday launched its own internet browser, opening up a new challenge in cyberspace to Microsoft and its dominant Internet Explorer.

The California-based Web search leader said the new browser called Google Chrome would “add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.”

“We realised … we needed to completely rethink the browser,” Google’s Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.

The test or ‘beta’ version can be downloaded for free in more than 100 countries and its code will be open- source so no rights will have to be paid by anyone using or adapting the software.

Chrome is Google’s latest weapon in its bid to become the leader in all internet areas. The last major browser war was won by Microsoft when it won the battle for dominance in the 1990s against Netscape Navigator.

Google scheduled a briefing on the new broswer, which will be available in more than 40 languages.

The move comes amid growth in browser market share by Firefox, a project of the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, which ironically gets a large portion of its funding from Google.

According to estimates by the research firm Net Applications, Internet Explorer is used by 74 per cent of computer users worldwide compared with 18 per cent for Firefox.

According to Google, the new browser will have several advantages including being “multi-threaded” to help avoid freeze-ups.

The announcement comes as Microsoft released a beta version of IE8, the eighth major version of its Explorer.

“This (Chrome) is a straight shot over the bow of Microsoft, which has tightly integrated its Live Search offering into its dominant Internet Explorer browser (and which, surprise, is in turn tightly integrated into Windows),” said Mark Hendrickson in a posting on the technology website TechCrunch.

“It also makes for an awkward relationship with Mozilla, whose Firefox browser Google basically funds.”

Henry Blodget of Silicon Valley Insider said: “Microsoft has seen this movie before. This time, it won’t like the ending.” Blodget said Google is attempting to drive more people to Google search and other applications and away from Microsoft.

“If you’re thinking about Chrome as just another Web browser, you’re missing the larger point,” he said.

“In a couple of years, you won’t be downloading Google’s ‘browser.’ You’ll be downloading Google’s software — or, rather, you’ll be clicking on a series of Google icons that come pre-installed. Specifically, you’ll be working within a Google software environment that works sort of like Windows.”

Source: Pak Tribune