With Google working towards a later-this-year release of its Chrome OS, which is based on the Chrome browser, the company recently hinted at its last-week I/O developer conference in San Francisco that eventually it will merge Android and Chrome OS.

Chrome OS is basically the Chrome browser running the Linux's Goobuntu version - with the browser being the only local application; and is designed specifically with the aim of keeping all data in the proverbial "cloud," though some local caching will also be allowed.

Noting that the influence that the Google Chrome browser has had on the Web ecosystem has been "huge", Google's VP of engineering Vic Gundotra told reporters at the conference: "Chrome is part of our strategy to make the web more powerful."

Adding that the Chrome browser became the fastest browser and impacted almost all the other browsers, Gundotra said: "Chrome OS is going to use that same strategy to make the web better."

About the prospective merger of the Android and Chrome operating systems, Gundotra hinted that the increasing popularity of the Android - on which the company is presently focused - will likely have a positive effect on the future of Chrome OS. However, Gundotra also said that the company's strategy will remain "pliable" and will be adjusted and changes according to the need of the market.