Project Googlefox

Technology review reports on the possiblity that Google may be developing its own browser to compete with Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE).

[A] Google browser would be a major shot across the bow of Microsoft.

Right now, Microsoft doesn't make money on its Internet Explorer, although the product is lumped in with the company's lucrative Operating Systems division. The IE browser, though, plays an important defensive position for the company, a position that's expected to become more offensive when Microsoft's next operating system, Longhorn, is released in 2006. …

For now, Microsoft isn't yet in trouble. It still controls over 90 percent of the browser market, and with the Longhorn on the way in less that two years, Google needs to act quickly if it is in fact planning on launching a browser product. A new Internet Explorer with built-in search capabilities could have a devastating effect on Google.

Let's hope that Google does develop a browser and that it is successful in capturing a major part of the market. It would seem almost a necessity for Google to devlop some platform upon which to build its future. Without that, it is extremely vulnerable to the development of products that tend to push people toward other search engines.