If the latest rumor is to be believed, Sony and Google are working on bringing the Chrome Web browser to the PS3.
The PS3 already has its own built-in Web browser, allowing users to have nearly unfiltered access to the Internet. However, it’s a proprietary Sony browser that is kind of clunky and doesn’t work all that well.
Chrome, meanwhile, has proven itself to become a rather flexible browser, with variations being used for computers, Android phones, and Google TV-enabled TV sets. Since it is being used as the browser for Google TV, it would seem to already be tailored for the big-screen nature of the PS3.
The rumor stems from gaming enthusiast forum Neogaf, where a user stumbled upon new details on Sony’s PS3 webkit support files. There’s a newly added file called ChromeClientPOSIX.
Sony and Google are also already good partners. Sony is currently the only manufacturer making TVs fully integrated with Google TV, and its mobile phone venture Sony Ericsson is now almost completely focused on Android.
The Neogaf user noted, though, “I don’t see the cool stuff from Chrome in these sources, like bookmark syncing, but it’s a huge project, and the diff only covers what needed to be changed so it works on the PS3.”
Nevertheless, anything would be a huge improvement to the PS3’s existing browser which, despite the rest of the console receiving massive updates over the past five years, has remained relatively untouched.
