Google is beefing up its Chrome browser with several touch features, in the wake of more touch-screen based PCs flooding the market.

In an update to the Canary build of Chrome, Google has added the ability to use your finger to slide left or right to go backwards and forwards between web pages. It works similar to Internet Explorer 10 found within Windows 8. 

This is a useful feature not only on computers like HP's touch-based line, but also on Google's touchscreen Chrome Pixel. The touch features are not yet available in the mass release of Chrome, but in the Canary build which acts as a beta. 

Furthermore, Google is testing pinch-to-zoom within Chrome, a feature that has been made popular by smartphones and tablets. There's now an "enable pinch scales" option in the Chrome Canary flags and isn't yet fully working, like the slide-to-navigate feature. However, it does appear you'll be able to do the typical zooming on websites with the hand movement we've come to love for pinching and zooming. 

If Google's typical release schedule is to be followed, the latest Canary build should be released to the public in the coming weeks. But if you're the adventurous type you can still download it now in beta form.