Google Wants Chrome To Come With New PCs

Google is looking to start doing deals that will see its Chrome browser come pre-installed on new PCs — and it could well happen.

It’s no secret that Google is ambitious. But now the company is showing more of the scope of that ambition, which includes having its Chrome browser come pre-installed on new PCs, just like, well, you know…

Chrome will emerge from beta testing early in the 2009, after which Google will be looking at ways to increase its browser market share, which currently stands at 1%, compared to around 20% for Firefox and about 71% for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Sundar Pichai, Google Vice President, Product Management, told The Times:

“We will probably do distribution deals. We could work with an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and have them ship computers with Chrome pre-installed.”

With versions of Chrome for both Mac and Linux due by mid-2009, the browser will be able to work on almost all computers.

Thanks to antitrust rulings regarding Microsoft and IE, it should be perfectly possible for Google to make its deals, so we might be witnessing the start of the big browser wars. Microsoft might be powerful, but Google has plenty of muscle to flex, too. As Pichai warned:

“We will throw our weight behind it. We’ve been conservative because it’s still in beta, but once we get it out of beta we will work hard at getting the word out, promoting to users, and marketing will be a part of that.”