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Google's Brin: Chrome Coming To Android

It was nearly a year ago that Google said it was going to create a mobile Web browser. It managed to get Chrome, a full desktop browser for Windows-based machines, out the door yesterday. What about a mobile version for its Android platform? Google co-founder Sergey Brin says it is on the way.

I was going to raise this issue yesterday, but decided against it. Sure, Chrome is an exciting new entrant into the desktop browser market, but I am much more interested to see what Google can do with a mobile browser.

All the builds I've seen of Android include some form of a browser, but it hasn't been named. Nor have many details about it been shared. We do know that it uses WebKit, as does Chrome. As soon as I heard the news that Google was creating a desktop browser, I immediately assumed that a version of it would become the native browser on Android phones. Turns out my assumption wasn't far off the mark.

According to statements made by Brin at yesterday's Chrome launch event, it will bring some version of Chrome to Android. The two, however, are not married together. "We have not wanted to bind one's hands to the other's," said Brin, being quoted by CNet.

Separate development paths make sense, but now that Android is nearing its final release, it needs to get its game face on. That means a real Web browser. Adding Chrome only makes sense. Brin didn't provide a time frame, though. He only committed to saying, "Probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack."

Exactly how and when Chrome will be ported to use on Android handsets and what functionality it will provide is unclear. But at least we know it is in the future.

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