Google Chrome launches today. Photo: Google TM.

Today marks the launch of Google’s own internet browser, Google Chrome, set to rival both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

Google Chrome is yet another expansion by the search engine giant and aims to break into the web browser market dominated by Microsoft’s goliath Internet Explorer, which currently reigns with a 74% share.

Rumours of a Google web browser have been circulating for the past few years and there are claims that Chrome has been in development for at least two years.

The new open source browser has been designed to be clean and fast, in a style that replicates the classic Google homepage.

Google’s Sundar Pichai announced the news on The Official Google Blog on 1 September. He said: “We realised that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.”

The blog also states that Chrome would feature a new format for tabs and displaying thumbnails as well as an improved address bar. 

Chrome will initially be launched as a beta for Windows in more than 100 countries, with Mac and Linux versions still in the development process.