Broadband Advisor

In yet another example of Google's expanding influence, the search company's co-founder, Sergey Brin, said he expects the new Chrome browser to eventually become part of the Android wireless phone platform, which is under separate development by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google.

Brin, in an interview with CNET at the Chrome announcement this week, said that "probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack." Google officials were unavailable to elaborate.

While developed separately, both Chrome and Android's browser rely on WebKit open-source software for interpreting HTML code that builds and renders a Web page.

The first Android phone is expected to launch in November, manufactured by HTC as the Dream phone and first sold in the US by T-Mobile.

Google's ultimate ability to increase its influence in the mobile device market may well depend on whether a mobile Chrome browser is used on any other phones using Android software, several analysts said. Among the mobile browers available today are FireFox, Internet Explorer, Opera and the emerging Skyfire.