So I'm here in San Francisco where a lot of us are wondering yet again “what is Google thinking?”. The company just launched another product that at least on the surface doesn't seem to have a whole lot to do with its core business, search and on-line ads. So what it is. It's a web browser. It's called Chrome. This is going to compete with other existing web browsers like Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Apple's Safari and Firefox.
So why's the company that makes the majority of its revenues from online ads launching its own branded web browser. Well the thinking here is that if Google can provide a better, faster, easier Internet experience, then more people are going to spend more time online. And that in turn drives more ads for Google and more avenues. So Google could have a tough sale here though because Internet Explorer unlike Google's Chrome is available as a preloaded browser on many many computers.
For users to actually use Chrome, they are going to have to go out, be proactive and download Chrome from Google. It is available for free and it's going to be available in about 100 countries. So it's going to have a wide variability but for users to actually not only find out about Chrome but then go out and download it. It's a whole different challenge.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer has about 72% of market share right now. And Microsoft actually just recently launched an updated version of Internet Explorer 8. The closest runner-up which is Firefox has about 20% of the market share. So is there room for yet another web browser here. Well, yeah, I think consumers can always use a faster, more reliable browser, but whether Chrome is going to be that browser remains to be seen.