Chrome Becomes No. 2 Browser

Google came late to the Web-browser fight, but it's already taking on the frontrunner. Its free Chrome software has overtaken Mozilla's Firefox as the second-most-used browser in the world, behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which comes with its Windows operating system. Google started developing Chrome in 2006, partly out of concern that Microsoft could use Explorer to funnel users away from Google's search engine, and made the browser publicly available in 2008. Firefox, also free, launched in 2004.