Are we getting closer to Chrome for Android? In a Monday note to developers, Google's Andrei Popescu said his team is taking steps that might eventually make that a reality.
At this point, the browser on Android phones is, oddly, not Chrome. Its labeled simply as "browser," and there are two separate teams at Google that work on Chrome and the Android browser. As first reported by TechCrunch, however, Google is going to produce an open-source version of the Android browser.
"We’re fully committed to maintaining this new flavor of the Chromium port of WebKit and having a build bot up and running as soon as possible will make this an easier task," Popescu wrote.
WebKit is an open source browser layout engine used in Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, and several mobile browser. Popescu acknowledged that "over time, the Android Browser has come to share more and more code with Chrome (both WebKit and Chromium)."
As TechCrunch notes, it's all a little confusing because this open-source version of Android's browser will also be known as Chromium. "But regardless, this is a welcomed step in the right direction," the blog said.
The news comes the same week that Google released an update to Chrome 13 that fixes a number of security flaws. The search giant gave out almost $10,000 in bug bounties this time around. Of the 11 vulnerabilities identified, one—a memory corruption—was designated as critical and netted Michael Braithwaite a $1,337 reward. Nine were "high" risk and the final one was medium.
For more, see the Best Android Tablets slideshow below.
