Google enters the ‘Browser Wars’

Only in the Web 2.0 world does a multi-billion dollar corporation mark the release of a potentially game-changing new product not with a carefully scripted announcement by a CEO, but with a comic.

Since yesterday, Google is in the web browser business. And if you want to read all about it, you're directed to a 38-page graphic novel drawn by and for unreconstructed geeks, and illustrating why Google believes 'Chrome' is the browser of the future.

It's a significant launch. The so-called 'Browser Wars' have become something of a one-sided campaign. Firefox is popular among the technological elite for its endlessly customisable interface. Apple's Safari (available for Windows machines, too) is respected for its speed and beauty.

But Microsoft's Internet Explorer, bundled with every copy of Windows, has been the default choice since the late 1990s, and currently enjoys almost 80 per

cent of browser market share.

If anybody can redress the balance it's Google. Inside any browser is the internet, and Google dominates not just search (the single most important internet technology), but mapping, webmail and syndicated news innovation too. If Google can steer the way we use the internet, it can certainly engineer a browser that's tailor-made for a Google-led experience.

So what does Google have to gain from Chrome? With each new innovation, Google has been pushing computer users online for more and more of their computing needs. Eventually, it hopes to turn its Google Docs suite of online office applications into a genuine Microsoft Office-killer.

So far, slow and clunky, crash-prone browsers have been a significant barrier to widespread adoption. But, according to the Google comic, Chrome will offer anyone writing or balancing spreadsheets online a Google-optimised experience in which all roads lead home.

Chrome is available now for Windows. Expect Apple and Linux versions in the coming months.