Will Google's Chrome spell Firefox's death?

Google introduced Chrome as the next generation of browsers. It also came out with speed benchmarks claiming speed superiority over existing browsers Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.

Today, Mozilla has fired back with its own speed claims showing that the upcoming Firefox 3.1 is still faster than Chrome, particularly in javascript execution. "We're very much in the game and moving fast--'reports of our death are greatly exaggerated,'" says Brendan Elch, JavaScript pioneer and TraceMonkey coder for Firefox.

But why is Firefox particularly defensive? We don't see Microsoft or Apple defending their browsers against Google's new product.

Of particular note is Mozilla's relationship with Google. Just last week, before all the shine of Chrome was announced, Mozilla extended its search deal with Google for another 3 years. With most of Mozilla's money coming from Google ($57 Million for 2006), it's natural that the Firefox folks are particularly threatened by recent events.