Google has introduced a new feature in to the beta version of its Chrome browser that will allow users to access the same open tabs on different handsets and computers in recognitions of the cross-platform way web users now access its services.

The feature will allow users to look up directions to a restaurant on their home computer and double-check it, when out and about using their Android-based smartphone, said Nicolas Zea and Patrick Dubroy of Google's software engineering team wrote on the Chrome blog.

To access the feature, users need to sign in to Chrome, and then click on the “other devices” menu on the New Tab page.

“The tab’s back and forward navigation history is also included, so you can pick up browsing right where you left off,” they added.

The other devices option will be rolled out to Chrome beta users over the coming months.

Google originally used the sign-in capabilities of Chrome to help users link bookmarks, extensions, apps, themes and browser preferences to their Google account – ensuring they could access them regardless of what computer they are on.

Google offers users the ability to encrypt this information, thereby reducing the likelihood that personal data can be stolen.

Last month, Chrome briefly overtook Microsoft's Internet Explorer as the most widely-used browser to access the internet – albeit only briefly, as the firm continues its attempt to conquer the browser market.

Google has released a beta version its highly acclaimed Chrome desktop browser for the Android platform and V3 has been putting it through its paces.

The browser is available to download for devices running the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich platform and aims to provide improved browsing speeds and synchronisation between devices.

V3 has been using the Chrome for Android Beta on the Asus Transformer Prime and the app is impressive in terms of speed and design, but does have some flaws.

The interface closely resembles the desktop version of Chrome, which has always been excellent in terms of speed and a clear and simple look. Tabbed browsing has already been introduced in the standard Android Webkit browser, so it is no surprise to see it included in Chrome.

The mobile browser allows users to open an unlimited number of tabs and they stack up nicely so that you can see exactly how many you have open.

There are some nice touches including the ability to zoom in on links, making them easier to hit on smartphones. When you sync your Google account, the browser will also open up pages that you have been viewing on another machine.

However, users expecting all desktop features on mobile devices will be disappointed. There is no Adobe Flash support available in this version and it will not make it to final release.

Adobe has confirmed that Chrome for Android will not support Flash as the firm has stopped developing the technology for mobile operating systems and is focussing on the HTML5 standard.

As mentioned, the Chrome app only supports the latest devices running Android Ice Cream Sandwich. This means it is limited to people with the latest kit, such as the Asus Transformer Prime tablet and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone. However, devices that have been rooted and have ICS installed onto them may also be able to get the app.

Considering that lack of Flash support, users are still going to be relying on Firefox and the stock Webkit browser to view video content.

Being a beta version, there are still bugs on Chrome for Android and we did experience crashes and needed to reload tab that were already open. These bugs will no doubt be corrected in further releases.

From what we've seen so far, it looks like Google has built Chrome for Android for the future. As the HTML5 standard comes into more frequent use, it is likely to be one of most used browsers on mobile devices.

We would recommend that Ice Cream Sandwich users download the app, but users with other Android handsets shouldn't feel too hard done by at present.

Twitter has been given a significant overhaul in an effort to make the site easier to navigate and provide new functionalities, so V3 has taken a closer look at the changes to see how the new site compares to the original.

The first thing you'll notice is that your profile and news feed have been swapped around, so you'll need to get your bearings. The colour scheme has been changed to a darker shade of blue and Twitter has also culled a lot of tabs.

There are now three running along the top: Home, Connect and Discover. There's also a Profile icon on the far right that brings down a drop menu, and next to it is the Tweet button with a feather that allows you to instantly send a message.

The new Twitter:

The old Twitter:

The Connect tab allows you to search for other Twitter users and see whether anyone has mentioned you, messaged you, retweeted you or started following you.

Meanwhile, the Discover tab provides tweets based on your interests, current location, what you follow and events taking place to help you get more out of the site's non-stop flow of messages.

Taking a page out of YouTube's book, Twitter has added the ability to embed tweets. This allows users to post a tweet on a web site by pasting a line of code. Twitter users can then follow, reply, retweet or 'favourite' the tweet without visiting Twitter.

Meanwhile, companies can also enhance their profile pages to attract followers and promote services. There is the freedom to put a larger logo and header, and show pictures and links in a more prominent display. This is a nice touch that allows businesses to differentiate their profiles on the site by making them livelier.

The update is being rolled out across the desktop site over the next few days, while the mobile version, which incorporates the Discover and Connect tabs, is now available for all users, according to Twitter.

The battle for the hearts and minds of web app developers took another turn last week after Firefox creator Mozilla announced the availability of the developer's kit for its Open Web Applications platform.

The firm is hoping to emulate the success of Apple and Google by giving developers the chance to create applications that work across mobile and desktop devices.

This will mean that, rather than a closed ecosystem such as Apple's, where a developer can only build apps for its iOS platform for devices like the iPhone or iPad, Mozilla developers can offer apps that run on any device, which could attract many more users.

So a developer could create an app that lets you use stored information from several credit cards so a user could select the appropriate one when paying for goods, rather than storing them in each individual site.

Or a user could add widgets for applications to the browser, such as Spotify, rather than having to have the application open on the desktop as well.

Ragavan Srinivasan, product manager for sync, services and apps at Mozilla, detailed the availability of the kit that includes the APIs, developer utilities and documentation for the creation of apps in a blog posting last week.

"We are excited to announce the availability of the first milestone release of Mozilla's Web Application project. Web Apps are applications that run on any device, and can be distributed through any store or directly by the developer," he said.

Srinivasan added that in the coming weeks Mozilla will add the ability to sync web apps to mobile devices, and offer support for native browser controls and integration with other operating systems.

Google has also launched a closed application system for netbooks adding more fuel to the debate between closed and open platforms, with many arguing that open environments will win by improving the user experience.

The issues I have been having with Virgin Media's email system seem to have been fixed at last, and I can now send and receive messages and access them both through the web and via an email client such as Windows Live Mail or Outlook.

As I wrote in earlier postings to this blog, the problems arose from Virgin Media's migration of customer mail accounts to a new system based on Google Mail. However, instead of the email account being unavailable for a very brief period - less than 15 minutes according to an optimistic notice on the company's web site - it was actually just over three weeks.

While I am pleased that the problem now seems to have been fixed, it took numerous phone calls between me and various people at Virgin Media, including at least one who was said to be from the chief executive's department, to resolve it, and the cause of the problem has still not been made clear.

The problem could also have been made worse by the fact that Virgin Media made a concerted effort last year to move all its customers to electronic billing, rather than receiving a paper bill sent through the post.

Like many other customers probably did, I nominated my Virgin Media account for this purpose, not imagining that the company could possibly screw up its own email service for an extended period of time.

Fortunately, this did not become a serious issue, and email seems to be up and running normally again. Hopefully, the same is true for other Virgin Media customers who found themselves in this position.

UPDATE: Virgin Media has been experiencing further email issues in March 2011. See V3.co.uk readers up in arms over Virgin Media email outage and Virgin Media email issues drag on for two weeks.

Well, I can now report that I am able to actually see the email inbox for my Virgin Media email account for the first time in nearly a fortnight, both via the web and through an email client (Windows Live Mail in this case).

Sadly, this is not the end of my problems. While I can now send emails from my account, a few test messages that I sent to myself from other accounts to make sure everything is OK have not been delivered.

One of these was returned some time later with an error report stating "451 Temporary local problem - please try later (state 14)". I will report back if I get to the bottom of this.

For those who are in the same position as me, and currently enduring having their personal email account migrated to a new system in a somewhat cack-handed and haphazard manner, I should point out that you will need to change the settings in your email client in order to access your emails.

With the move to a system based on Google Mail, email accounts are now using SSL encryption to send and receive messages. This must be enabled in the account settings for your email client, and also uses different TCP/IP port numbers for POP3, Imap and SMTP than before.

Virgin Media provides the relevant information on its website here.

UPDATE: Virgin Media has been experiencing further email issues in March 2011. See V3.co.uk readers up in arms over Virgin Media email outage and Virgin Media email issues drag on for two weeks.

Following my earlier blog on email problems at Virgin Media, I am still unable to access my personal email account, but technical support for the company has now admitted that there are issues with some customer accounts as part of the firm's switch to Google Mail.

The problem appears to affect some customers who have old-style NTL accounts - those with email addresses ending with '@ntlworld.com'.

I gleaned this information from a member of Virgin Media staff only after I escalated my support call, having grown tired of trying to get the front-line technical support staff to fix the issue.

However, the person I spoke with declined to specify the exact nature of the problem, and would only say that they have had numerous calls similar to mine, and that they are still working on it.

It also seems that Virgin Media wants customers to access their email via a browser following the switch to Google Mail, rather than use an email client program.

During my attempts to solve the email problems, I have been told several times that Windows Live Mail (Microsoft's new email client for Windows 7) is not supported by Virgin Media, despite the fact that there are explicit instructions on the company web site for configuring this, as well as other POP mail clients.

I can only assume that the company wants to drive up traffic figures for its web site, as even Google supports POP access to its webmail accounts.

FURTHER UPDATE: Virgin Media has been experiencing further email issues in March 2011. See V3.co.uk readers up in arms over Virgin Media email outage and Virgin Media email issues drag on for two weeks.

Virgin Media customers be advised - you could find yourself without access to your email account for several days sometime in the near future. The reason for the outage is that Virgin Media is in the process of migrating its domestic broadband customer email accounts to Google Mail.

However, many customers will only discover this fact when they try to access their emails and instead get an error message.

This was my experience when I opened Windows Live Mail on Wednesday, and was unable to synchronise with the POP server. An error message popped up, telling me that the server had rejected my password as incorrect.

I called Virgin Media's tech support line to find out what the problem was, and the engineer I spoke to blamed the problem on the migration of mail accounts to Google. He said that I will not be able to access my account for up to five days after reporting the problem.

I was vaguely aware that the Google Mail switchover was coming, but there was no warning from the company that this was imminent.

A note posted on the Virgin Media web site has the following information for customers:

Your mailbox will be unavailable for a very short time while you are migrated to the Google system - we can't say exactly how long in each case, but it will usually be well under 15 minutes.

We'll send you an email before we move your mailbox, and another email to welcome you to the new system once your mailbox has been moved.

Needless to say, I have received no such email, and rather than a brief 15-minute loss of service, will now not be able to access my personal emails for anything up to five days.

This is all part of the service that has made Virgin Media such a byword for customer satisfaction, of course.

So if you are a Virgin Media customer, be warned. You may wish to sign up for a webmail account, so you can at least send and receive messages if the same thing happens to you, and advise anyone you regularly exchange email correspondence with to send a copy of any messages to the backup account.

UPDATE: Virgin Media has been experiencing further email issues in March 2011. See V3.co.uk readers up in arms over Virgin Media email outage and Virgin Media email issues drag on for two weeks.