The search giant’s popular homepage ran an ad for the open-source web browser Firefox.

What Google did could be considered to be a big marketing push for Firefox against its rival Microsoft. It absolutely obvious that both Google and Mozilla have a common enemy: the Redmond giant. In the end, joining forces in order to go against Gate’s empire seems only natural.

Looking at the market, IE has about 85 percent share of it, becoming a direct target for hackers and viruses. This weak point for IE became a strong point for Firefox’s advertising.

The reason why this forces united? According to Google officials it seems normal to advertise Firefox with Google Toolbar as tabbed browsing and safe browsing are common goals for both companies.

The story between Google and Mozilla started last year. The joint promotional relationship between the two started with the search engine providing text ads for promoting Firefox plus the Google Toolbar to its advertising network of third-party Web sites.

Google is well known for the simplicity of its home page which has always attracted Web surfers. Having a Firefox ad on this page can only increase the browser’s popularity and it could definitely end up grabbing a piece of that IE’s market share.