One week ago, Google launched its open-source browser called Chrome, which is beta software aimed at catering for the consumers’ need to have a modern platform for their browsing and web applications.

And although at that time Microsoft, the company that has a pretty tight grip on almost 80% of the browser market, showed no sign of fear concerning the new kid on the block, things seem a bit different now.

With the company’s latest version of the Windows operating system-Vista, that is-not exactly catching on, Chrome poses a real threat and is not to be dismissed. Not only by Microsoft. By Mozilla also, which is another powerful competitor in the browser business.

Nevertheless, the latter company has something up their sleeve, since, only a few days after Chrome was launched, the Mozilla Corporation released Firefox 3.1, software targeted at developers and testers.

Code-named Shiretoko, it enables users to drag and drop tabs between browser windows and also provides more video functionality.

Even though rumour has it that Google Chrome will gain much popularity among users, it is not without flaw. Recently, security experts have reported finding buffer overflow vulnerability, which is an aftermath of an error in the functioning of the „Save As” button. And this is not Chrome’s sole shortcoming. So far, a number of six bugs have been found by security researchers.

While some may say that Google’s product is not the shiniest coin in the roll, it is not to be taken lightly that Chrome does have quite the advantages on its competition: speed, better performance in interactive applications, a much simpler navigation bar and the new JavaScript virtual machine, which is considered a better solution to complex web apps.