Sep. 5--A new high-tech soap opera kicked off this week in Silicon Valley as Google, long a supporter of the Mozilla Foundation and its open-source browser Firefox, jumped into Mozilla's turf with its own browser, Chrome. Will the sexy new Chrome catch the eye of those early adopters who helped Firefox get started and eventually grab nearly 20 percent of the browser market once dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer? Or will Firefox remain the browser of choice for those who don't like Explorer, and keep its reputation among techies as what Mozilla CEO John Lilly called "the best browser that's ever been built"? Probably a little of both, say experts and representatives of the two Mountain View companies.

The clear winner is the open-source movement. Like Mozilla, Google will publish the code for Chrome, which it released in beta form this week, giving a big push to the open-source movement that Mozilla helped foster. Mozilla's Lilly noted that the non-profit foundation's "primary mission" is to improve the Web, which it is currently doing through Firefox.

"There will be some negative impact" on Mozilla, said Ray Valdes of Forrester Research. "The question is how much and in what time frame."

The early adopters are curious, Valdes said, "and some are going to switch over for sure. That will be a negative impact in terms of influence on the technogeeks," Valdes said.

"Google's trying to give users a good Web experience as well,"

Lilly said in an e-mail. "As for competing, users will make their own choices. If you're asking whether we'll see market-share erosion, we'll see, but remember that 72 percent of the users on the Internet still use IE, so there's room to grow for everyone."

Firefox has a huge head start and millions of users, which Google would be hard-pressed to woo overnight. And it has a large community developing add-ons that help enhance the browsing experience. "That won't go away soon," Valdes said.

Also, Google will continue to support Mozilla with royalty payments; the two entities just signed a new three-year contract. Google declined to go into specifics about the agreement.

Mozilla reported in a financial statement that 85 percent of its 2006 revenue came from a "contract with a search-engine provider for royalties." The company reported $61.5 million in royalties from search in 2006. Lilly recently wrote on his blog that the arrangement with Google "means a lot for our ability to continue to invest in Firefox and in new things like mobile and services." "We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mozilla for really bringing a lot of innovation back to the browser space," said Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management. "They've led the way. We have no doubt they will continue to do so moving forward. We wanted to continue extend our relationship so they have resources to do so."

Pichai said alternatives to Microsoft's Internet Explorer aren't well-known. "Most people don't know there is choice. We wanted to add our voice to the mix."

There's no doubt the two companies will compete, since they are both after more of Microsoft's huge installed base of Explorer users.

But they also have a history of collaborating, observed Mozilla's Lilly. Chrome shares some technology with Firefox, for example.

And both companies say they are unified in their belief in the open-source world.

"We are really interested in driving the open Web forward," said Google's Pichai. "We all benefit if that happens." He said that "if we were competing for users, you wouldn't give your technology away."

Google already has some Chrome contributors, and it plans to make it possible for people to create extensions for the browser in the near future.

In the long run, Google's goal is to make Chrome a platform for its own and other online software applications, taking on Microsoft's dominance in that arena as well. "A browser is nothing but an application to surf the web," Pichai said.

Contact Pete Carey at pcarey@mercurynews.com.

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