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Google has suddenly announced the launch of Chrome, an Open Source internet browser set to challenge Microsoft's web dominance.

Chrome will be released on Wednesday, just weeks after Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 8.

Stepping into a war that has pitted Microsoft against Apple, Mozilla and Opera, Google’s beta release of Chrome is reminiscent of the 1990s browser wars.

Google Chrome will be released for Microsoft Windows in over 100 countries, with Mac and Linux versions still under development.

The browser

Chrome's code is based on WebKit, an open source web browser engine written and used by Apple in their Safari browser. WebKit could make Chrome available for iPhones and other mobiles, including those using Google's mobile phone platform Android.

The browser uses a hand-built JavaScript virtual machine, V8, which has been claimed to be faster than other JavaScript implementations. Google's product suite of web applications, which run on JavaScript, stand to benefit from increased running speeds.

Like most currently available browsers, Chrome will use tabbed browsing, placing tabs above the address bar. Individual tabs are isolated in a “sandbox” to prevent one tab from crashing the whole browser.

Some other Chrome features are available in other browsers, such as Internet Explorer’s 'privacy mode', which allows users to browse without logging websites and content. Chrome also features Opera’s "speed dial" homepage, which displays top visited websites and other information for users to browse.

The spin

"We believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web," wrote Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management, in Google’s official blog.

"We realized that ... we needed to completely rethink the browser."

Google also released a comic book, designed by veteran comic book creator Scott McCloud, which features engineers and designers explaining Chrome’s features.
The comic book was accidentally released to Google watchers Google Blogoscoped, which broke news of the browser’s release early.

The competition

Microsoft remained confident that users would prefer IE8 to Google Chrome.
"The browser landscape is highly competitive," Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of the Internet Explorer group, told the New York Times.

"But people will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their fingertips, respects their personal choices about how they want to browse and, more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal data online."

Microsoft released the Beta 2 version of its browser, Internet Explorer 8, on August 27. Between its various releases, Internet Explorer enjoys a market share of over 70 per cent, according to Net Applications.