Google's Chrome browser software has been making headway on PCs and laptops for a few years now, but so far Android owners have been left out in the cold, that is until now.

A public beta testing edition of Chrome for Android has been released and as long as you have a handset or tablet device which is running version 4.0 of Google's operating system, then you will be able to give it a go.

Of course for UK customers, the availability of Android 4.0 is still relatively limited and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the only guaranteed place which you will be able to experience this updated platform and consequently Chrome.

If you have an account with the desktop version of Chrome then real time synchronisation between the two will be possible. In short, this means that the tabs you have open on your computer will also be open on your phone the next time you fire up Chrome when you leave the house.

Synchronisation will also expand to include other aspects, such as history, favourites and much more, while Chrome's famously fast searching capabilities will also be on hand.

Google has made a great effort to scale down the already minimalist Chrome interface in order to fit it onto Android smartphones. Tabs can be flipped between as if they were cards in a deck, according to the search giant's own description, while links can be previewed up close and personal, so that it is easier to select the one you want to visit, without accidently interacting with another one nearby.

Google has not mentioned whether or not Chrome will be getting backwards compatibility with a greater number of Android smartphones and, at the least, most people would hope for it to arrive on models running version 2.3, so that people with a Samsung Galaxy S2 or HTC Sensation XL do not have to wait for extended periods for an Android 4.0 update.

Android has always been able to offer a flexible web browsing experience and two years ago it became the first mobile platform to support Flash content, just at a time when Apple was cutting its ties with this standard. However, Chrome will be able to take the interconnected nature of web browsing to the next level and should bring cohesion to the experience of browsing on a mobile and desktop computer.