Thursday, Sep 4, 2008    Text size: 

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in an interview yesterday that his company plans to make the new browser available for Android, the operating system that will run on Google's upcoming mobile device.

Brin said that because two different teams developed Android and Chrome, he doesn't want to "bind" the two products together before they're ready.

That's soon to change, though.

"My guess is we'll have 'Chrome-like' or something similar," he said, referring to a future web browser for Android.

In August, Google received approval from the Federal Communications Commission to develop a mobile device based on Android.

Google's agreement with the FCC asked for a Nov. 10 release date, but the phone may hit the market sooner. In any event, online reports agree that the new phone will reach stores in time for the holidays and that T-Mobile will bring the device to consumers.

The phone will include a touch screen, wi-fi compatibility, a BlackBerry-style mouseball, a full Web browser like the iPhone's Safari, as well as other signature Google applications like Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube.

The appearance of a powerful new browser on the scene has thrust Google into a browser war that to date has only had two major opponents: Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox. Microsoft is especially feeling the pinch. Firefox has been steadily gaining in market share, plus Mozilla unveiled the third version of the browser with a high-profile launch in June.

All told, Internet Explorer lost almost a full percentage point of its market share to the combined growth of web browsers Firefox, Opera and Apple's Safari, according to NetApplications.com.

But Google may be aiming to dominate more than just the web browser market. Tech Critic Michael Arrington pointed out that Chrome's flexible compatibility with online applications has the potential to make it a virtual desktop.

"Make no mistake — the cute comic book and the touchy-feely talk about user experience is little more than a coat of paint on top of a monumental hatred of Microsoft," he wrote on TechCrunch.com. “Chrome will give them a real foothold on the desktop and way more control over how web applications perform. While it seems that Chrome is aimed at [Internet Explorer] and Firefox, the target is really Windows."

In related news, a Google representative said today that the company will change the terms of service for Chrome. The company drew fire for the language in section 11 of its terms of service, which most online analysts felt was too expansive.

Google's Rebecca Ward told the tech blog Ars Technica that Google is "working quickly to remove language from section 11 of the current Google Chrome terms of service. This change will apply retroactively to all users who have downloaded Google Chrome."