A new Chromium-based, open-source browser is in the works, and it is being developed by the CyanogenMod team.
Joey Rizzoli of CyanogenMod announced on his Google+ page that he and his team are working on Gello, a browser that is based on the open-source Chromium, the same browser upon which Google Chrome was based.
In a short teaser video posted by Rizzoli, we can take quick glimpses of some of the features that Gello will offer. Being less than 15 seconds long, the teaser does not provide a lot of details, but we can see that Gello will include a number of interesting features, such as a customized interface, night mode (black background) and immersive (full screen) mode, a Save for Offline mode and configurable download settings.
A follow-up of Rizzoli's video gives us a closer look at these features and several others that were not included in the teaser. One of Gello's standout features is the ability to configure privacy and security settings by website. The longer video shows users can choose to deny a website's access to their location or their devices' microphone and camera forever or only for the next 24 hours. It seems Gello will also allow users to block ads and distracting content from certain sites, pop-ups and cookies from certain sites but not from others.
Searching for websites on Gello gives users the ability to ask for desktop sites if they choose. Once they find the websites they are looking for, users can add these sites to their device's home screen or share them via Android Beam, Bluetooth, Gmail, or other Google apps. When users have several websites open, Gello makes it easier to go from one site to the next with Edge Swiping, a navigation tool that lets users go to the next or previous websites they have open simply by swiping to the left or right.
Users can also customize the way Gello looks by scaling the text size to make it look bigger or smaller without affecting the other types of content on the website. There is also the ability to choose not to load images, which is useful for users who are connected to a slow Internet connection or just want to speed up their browsing in general. And when users are running out of battery and want to preserve whatever amount of juice they have left but still have to go online, there is also a power save mode to reduce the browser's power usage.
Rizzoli makes it clear that Gello will not be compatible with older and lower-end devices. He also emphasizes that, although Gello is based on Chromium, CyanogenMod is not out to get Google.
"You'll always be free to choose to install your GApps package alongside with CyanogenMod and replace all the CyanogenMod apps you don't like/use with Google's," he says. "Me and all the CM teams uses Google Apps and Services every day. We aren't 'putting a bullet into Google's head.' We're just creating an operative system or ROM or firmware, whatever you call it."
Check out the new Gello in action in the video below.
