Companies such as Google see the control of the browser as the key to controlling development and delivery of a new generation of faster, richer, and more capable, advanced business and consumer applications that will eventually make the desktop operating systems irrelevant. This new effort by Google will be seen as an attempt to go after Microsoft's jugular. At a minimum, this move by Google will spur more innovation in the Web browser technology.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2008/09/google-joins-battle-of-browsers.html