Google confirmed to Mashable that it is developing a Metro version of Chrome for Windows 8 users. This follows Mozilla's announcement last month that it was building a Metro version of Firefox, work that has recently begun in earnest.

Plain Metro applications on Windows 8 are tightly restricted, with limited access to the operating system's features. Desktop applications are essentially unrestricted. Browsers are a special-cased hybrid between the two: Microsoft allows browsers to offer Metro front-ends without subjecting them to the Metro restrictions. These Metro browsers have dual front-ends: they run on both the desktop and within the Metro environment.

The Metro front-end will naturally be touch-friendly. Google says it will also work to make the desktop front-end touch-friendly too.

With Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer all offering Metro-enabled browsers, the three most popular Windows browsers will all be given touch-friendly Windows 8 interfaces. We asked Opera if it planned to follow suit. Arnstein Teigene, product manager, Desktop at Opera Software told us, "Unfortunately we can't comment on any specifics yet, other than we are currently looking into Windows 8. The new OS and the Metro UI offers an interesting new platform and we know users will want to run Opera on it."