Google, the great and powerful Oz of the Internet, announced Monday that its been working on a new open-source Web browser called Chrome. A beta version of the browser is expected to be released today for Windows with Mac and Linux versions to follow in the coming months.

So with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera and other browsers already available to users for free, what is the point?

According to this comic, Google feels browsers have grown to accommodate Web pages but not Web applications. Since most people use the Web to view videos, chat, play games and interact on a deeper level than ever before, Google decided to completely rethink the Web browser. Their plan, the comic states, is to build a tool that better serves the needs of the modern Web user.

If the beta releases today as expected, we'll see if early reviews project success. Since I, like everyone else, have consumed the Google Kool-Aid, I fully expect Chrome to be a winner. But I'll try to maintain a modicum of skepticism until I've at least played with the beta release.