Google's battle with Microsoft hots up

"Google has declared war on Microsoft", said Mike Harvey in the Times. With the launch this week of its very own internet browser, Chrome, the group has opened a new front line in the battle to dominate the way in which users access and interact with the web.

Google is tapping into the new trend for computing functions to take place online rather than desktops, said Harvey. Chrome can accelerate this endeavour and "make Microsoft's software less useful", as Google has extended its offerings to online word-processing and spreadsheet applications hitherto largely the territory of Microsoft's lucrative desktop Windows operating system.

"Microsoft knows how this game works," said Robert Cryan on Breakingviews. "It has long used its dominance to help new products gain a leg up." Meanwhile, as far as browsers go, its position isn't impregnable. "Internet Explorer may own 74% of the browser market, but Mozilla's Firefox browser has been able to gain 20% market share in less than four years and without the massive money machine that Google would be able to throw behind the project". Microsoft's position "looks shakier" with each push that Google makes.

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