The browser war rages on.  In light of recent HTML5 developments and growing adoption of mobile browsing, almost all major browsers (except Firefox) released a big update in roughly the same timeframe. The first one to highlight is Microsoft – All Things Digital reports Microsoft announced it will officially launch IE9 at an Austin event on Monday. The browser reportedly offers greater HTML5 support, new anti-tracking tools and better performance.

“Even those not cool enough to be in Austin, though, will be able to download the new Internet Explorer starting at 9 a.m. PT, Microsoft said in a blog.”

Around the same time IE9 launches, Microsoft will also be rolling out a special version of Bing for HTML5-compatible browser users, which will include instant results and animations when moving between pages.

IE9 is coming soon, but Chrome 10 is already here. This latest version brings carries some very notably improvements, starting with faster JavaScript and the “Crankshaft” version of the V8 browser engine, which is, according to Google, 66% faster than the version Chrome 9 used. Moreover, Chrome 10 also features password sync, 23 security fixes and additional preferences, but one feature – H.264 video support – has been removed in favor of Google’s V8 encoding.

To top off recent browser launches, Apple also released Safari 5.0.4 for Mac OS X. The 39.3MB comes with a big bunch of improvements, including increased stability for websites with multiple instances of plug-in content, improved webpage graphics and effects compatibility, better stability and support for VoiceOver, and a few other minor bug fixes as well.

If 3 browser updates are not enough, Opera is also joining in on the fun with its shiny new app store. Appia provided the e-commerce technology for the Opera Mobile store, which features both free and paid apps for Java, Symbian, BlackBerry, Android and Windows Mobile powered devices.  As the cloud frees up space on our devices, the browser will become increasingly important for interfacing through the mobile sector.  It’s yet another area the tech leaders are hoping to dominate, knowing browsers will be a major point of interaction and monetization of consumer activity.