Google unlikely to make an Internet browser

One noteworthy takeaway from Google's Wednesday analyst call (liveblogged by Brian White) is that Google does not have plans to build its own browser. 

With Google expanding in so many directions, it is worth noting that Google's recent expansion into the desktop space via Dell doesn't mean it will be going one step further with a desktop Internet browser.

This makes sense as Google recently partnered with Firefox and as CEO Eric Schmidt states, people are content with the current browser options: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera, so there isn't a demand for Google to develop an alternative. Google, "would not build a browser just for the fun of building a browser," he says. 

Schmidt did however voice his concerns over Microsoft's upcoming releases of its new OS Microsoft Vista and the prepackaged new release of Internet Explorer. Schmidt's concerns have similar undertones to Netscape's prior arguments over anti-competition -- that by prepackaging and other possible integrations, Microsoft will use it's dominant position on a user's desktop to drive their searching towards MSN.

With Google having reprioritzed on 'search', could Schmidt's concerns touch on Chairman Gate's allusions to MSN re-emerging when the stage and timing is set?