Ben Hammersley does an excellent job analyzing current trends in the web browser area in his article The Second Browser War for The Guardian.

If you start to consider Google‘s own system as your hard drive, and your browser as your operating system, you might see how Microsoft could be deeply worried.

Behind the curtain of global internetexplorerness a new breed of web applications is rising slowly and more important new browsers are gaining ground on the Windows platform. New services like Google‘s GMail and Apple‘s .Mac Home Page are asking for a high level of standards compliance and Microsoft is going to have a tough struggle with strong competitors that have managed to establish a strong and determined following in the web scene. While these groups are not a danger to MS in terms of numbers, they are trendsetters for a new way of how to use your computer in the modern times. And this, indeed, can make a difference on the Internet.