Google’s Chrome Canary build, which is used for the testing of new features, now includes new touch features, such as slide-to-navigate and the ability to swipe left or right for back/forward while browsing the web.
The Verge reports:
Pinch-to-zoom also appears to be something Google is experimenting with too, thanks to an “enable pinch scale” option in the Chrome Canary flags. It’s more experimental than the swipe navigation, but it works as you’d expect by zooming in websites using your fingers. On Windows 8, Google is also supporting the onscreen keyboard fully in the desktop version by displaying it when you tap the address bar or text boxes.
Obviously enabling more touch features in Chrome will make the browser all the more appealing for mobile devices, including touchscreen Chromebook products like the recently launched Chromebook Pixel, but it also illustrates a growing connection between Google’s two operating systems – Chrome OS and Android.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin once implied that Chrome and Android would likely converge into one operating system at some point, and over the years Google has added various features overlapping the two.
A recent example would be the conversational search feature, which originated on Android, but has made its way to Chrome.
Back in March, Google’s former CEO and current Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, said that Android and Chrome would remain separate products, but that we could expect more overlap between them. And with these latest features, Google appears to be making good on Schmidt’s word.