Microsoft flaw clears the field for Google's rivals

As more and more details emerge about the hack of Google's systems which could force the web giant out of China, the plot thickens.

Now it appears that hackers infiltrated Google's corporate systems through, guess what, a web browser produced by its arch enemy Microsoft.

Now, this shouldn't be very surprising given that Internet Explorer has a market share of around 70 per cent, depending on whose stats you read. But it is a little surprising to think that Google employees have IE running, when their own company produces Chrome - the newest browser on the market, which recently shot up to third in the browser league behind IE and Firefox.

Or perhaps Google is such a forward thinking, liberal, smoothie drinking company that it doesn't mind if its staff use rival products. We think not.

Which raises another tantalising question. Will Microsoft again be bemoaning the much-publicised security issue which riddle its products, or secretly relishing the fact that it has managed to indirectly force its fiercest rival out of potentially the biggest market on the planet?

15 Jan 2010