Google to launch Chrome browser for Android mobiles

Internet search giant Google has announced that it is launching the popular Chrome Web browser for phones and tablets running its Android operating system.

That means Android 4.0 users can have scores of different web sites open simultaneously on their mobile phones.

Google's aim, however, is not simply to put a slightly better Internet browser on a mobile device.

The Telegraph quoted Sundar Pichai, Google's Senior Vice President for Chrome, as saying that the aim of launching the original browser was nothing less than "to move the whole web forward".

Pichai likened the experience to a "stack of cards" in your hand, as well as offering a new private mode that doesn't record what sites you've visited in your browsing history.

Improved integration with desktop versions mean that the browser can replicate the same tabs you have open on your main computer.

However, there remain two surprising problems for Chrome.

When Android first launched, one of its key-selling points was that it could display websites that used the Adobe Flash programming language, unlike Apple's iPhone.

Pichai said that Chrome for Android would not be able to do that.

The second issue is that, although there are now over 250 million Android devices worldwide, just one per cent of them can run Chrome, because it is only available for the latest version, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich.