Google and Microsoft rivalry has begun long ago, where former is toiling and manipulating hard to save its search supremacy while latter is evermore anxious to take away the No. 1 slot. In the recent development, Google is shipping its Chrome browser with Sony Corp PCs, sealing the Internet company’s first such deal since it introduced the Web browser last year to compete with Microsoft.

The deal could expand the reach of Google’s fledgling product which lags behind browsers offered by Microsoft Corp and the Mozilla foundation in market share. Google said the company is currently exploring ways to make Chrome accessible to more people.

The deal with Sony was first reported by the Financial Times. Sony trails PC giants like Hewlett-Packard Company and Dell Inc , and did not rank among the top five PC vendors by worldwide shipments in the second quarter, according to research firm IDC.

Google first introduced the Chrome browser in September 2008 and remains a distant number four player in the browser market, with a 2.59 per cent worldwide share in July according to market research firm Net Applications.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer dominates the browser market with 67.7 per cent market share, followed by the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox, with 22.5 per cent, and Apple Inc’s Safari, with 4 per cent.