Google Launches 'Chrome' Free Web Browser

Details leaked out early about Google's first Web browser, which the company is releasing Tuesday in 100 countries. The browser, called Chrome, is expected to challenge the dominance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Google commissioned a comic book to explain the new browser — and it was all over the Web on Monday. In an online statement, one of the browser's creators acknowledged they hadn't been quite ready for the launch, but it's happening anyway.

Sundar Pichai wrote that Google is creating a browser designed for today's Web — with the implication that Microsoft's Internet Explorer is outdated. Pichai's note says the company's browser is more in sync with all the video and audio blossoming on the Internet as content migrates from television, radio and newspapers.

Right now, Internet Explorer has 75 percent of the market. Google's new browser is no doubt a response to company concerns that Microsoft could manipulate the settings on Explorer to draw people away from Google's search engine.

A Microsoft statement dismissed concerns about competition from Google, saying its latest technology puts the services that users want at their fingertips.