During a conference call with Wall Street analysts Wednesday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt dismissed speculation that the company aimed to tie together its Web search and other services to compete with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the world's dominant Web browser.
"It looks like people have some good browser choices already," Schmidt said. "We would not build a browser for the fun of building a browser," he added.
Google encourages its customers to use a variety of alternatives to Internet Explorer, particularly the open-source Firefox browser. It also has partnerships to encourage the use of the Safari browser among Apple Computer Inc. customers, Norway's Opera Software ASA, which makes browsers for computers and phones, among several other browser alternatives, he said.
However, Schmidt left the door open to developing a browser if it saw some clear utility to users that was not otherwise being met in the market. "We would only do something ... if we thought there was a real end-user benefit," he said.
News source: Reuters
