Why Google launched Chrome
Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft's most recent update to its browser, lets people navigate the Net while hiding their Internet address and viewing history - sometimes called "porn mode."
While this privacy feature isn't exactly new to the browsing world, it is the first time Microsoft has offered it. And given that Microsoft has 72% of the browser market, that move is seen as a significant threat to Google, which attempts to pinpoint its search results to a user's interests.
"Google Chrome is partly a defensive move as Microsoft is incorporating functionality in new browsers that may block the collection of ad targeting information," Stifel Nicolaus analyst George Askew wrote in a note Tuesday.
Blocking, tackling
For Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and Microsoft, the browser is the virtual box office of Internet search revenue. Searches create hits and hits create context and ultimately clicks. This is the big money flow in Google's $16.5 billion annual revenue stream.
Getting blocked from user information is certainly a critical turn for the search industry, but a recent move by Mozilla's Firefox goes even further by circumventing the search process all together.
In Firefox, users type a Web address, or URL, in the address box. With each letter typed the browser offers to complete the process by showing a list of sites the person has visited that correspond with the fragment of the word. For example, you want to go to Wikipedia and your first suggested destinations are Weather.com or Nintendo's Wii.
Some analysts predict it's only a matter of time before this auto-complete feature is added to Internet Explorer.
Google has been working on a browser for about two years, but, according to analysts, the company hadn't felt compelled to introduce it to the world. It's telling, given the squeeze in the search business and the competitive moves by the two browser giants, that Google would bring out Chrome now
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