Google Gets Tough on Microsoft

And here we thought the browser wars were over. Three days ago, Google launched a new promotions campaign against Microsoft, urging people to dump Internet Explorer in favor of Mozilla's Firefox or Chrome. The message flashed onto the computers of people who access Gmail via Internet Explorer, warned people that Internet Explorer was not able to run all of Gmail's functions, and claimed that both Firefox and Chrome operated Gmail twice as fast. In addition, Google flashed links for people to download either browser. "In order to get the best experience possible and make Google Mail run an average of twice as fast, we suggest that you upgrade your browser to one of the fastest Google Mail supported browsers that work on Windows," the message concluded.

As CNet's Matt Asay notices, this is a remarkably aggressive new tone for Google, as the company now openly campaigns for people to abandon Microsoft's browser. "Microsoft is getting a taste of its own medicine from the company that increasingly looks and acts like Microsoft," he writes.

And Microsoft has good reason to be nervous. According to the Web metrics company Net Applications, Internet Explorer lost a record amount of market share in December, dropping 1.6 percentage points. To be sure, Internet Explorer is still the dominant browser in the market, as 68.2 percent of people still use Internet Explorer. But the decline is pretty striking, and Firefox has been steadily rising, grabbing more than 20 percent of the market in November for the first time. Clearly, Google wants this trend to continue and is willing to offer Firefox free promotions if that's what it takes to undercut Internet Explorer.