Sony snubs Microsoft in Google Chrome browser deal

Google has inked an agreement with Japanese tech giant Sony to make Chrome the default browser in its PCs.

Financial terms of Sony's Microsoft-snubbing deal with Mountain View were kept secret.

Google said it will push for similar browser tie-ins with other hardware vendors over the coming months.

This is the first such deal struck by the company since its Chrome browser debuted, almost a year to the day on 2 September 2008.

Over the past year, search giant Google has been keen to grab market share from Redmond's ubiquitous Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox.

So far it's not really made the kind of of impact Google might have expected after 12 months, pulling in less than three per cent of browser users, according to market tracker Net Applications, compared with IE's massive 67 per cent share.

Firefox of course has got to 23 per cent with few hardware bundling deals.

Some Sony Vaio machines have already gone on sale with the Chrome browser loaded as the default, following the agreement.

Google Chrome engineer Matt Cutts noted in a blog post yesterday the various stats lining up that detail how well the firm's browser has performed since its 2008 arrival.

Unsurprisingly he reckons Google's grab was "pretty good" for the first year.

"More importantly, Chrome has pushed all browsers to be faster, more modern, and generally better," he gushed. ®