Concomitantly with the launching of Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft revealed that company partners will deliver personalized versions of the browser. The announcement was made by Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft General Manager. "In addition to our release of IE7, Yahoo! has a customized version of the browser available today and over the next few days partners such as Weather.com and USA TODAY will offer their own customized versions. These versions will tailor the user experience with specific toolbars, additional search engines, favorites, and RSS feeds," had stated Hachamovitch back in October.

Google was not on Microsoft's initial list of partners that would deliver customized versions of Internet Explorer 7. But, while the Mountain View search giant has been lagging behind Yahoo in this aspect, it too has made available for download a copy of IE7 optimized for Google.

The adjacent image is a screenshot of the download page and if you follow this link it will point you to the Google customized browser. As was the case with Yahoo, Google's customizations mean that the IE7 download will be delivered with a Google homepage that will allow additional user personalization. Moreover, Google has been set as the default search engine in Internet Explorer 7, and the browser additionally features the Google toolbar. In order to access the download, users have to first agree to Google's Terms and Conditions. These refer exclusively to the usage of Google Toolbar.

Considering the early availability of customized versions of IE7 from Yahoo, Weather.com and USA Today, the fact that Google has started a similar initiative almost two months after the release of the browser illustrates the "close" relationship between Microsoft and Google.