The new Chrome bookmark sync, from the sounds of it, will mirror at least some of the functionality offered by -- a still-under-development service that continually synchronizes your bookmarks, history, and saved passwords across multiple instances of Firefox. It's likely to overlap even more directly with , a third-party utility that within Firefox, IE, and Safari.

The reason: is set to debut a Chrome-supporting version of its product sometime this summer, CEO James Joaquin confirms. Unlike the browser-specific tools, Joaquin says his company's program will also allow Chrome users to sync up data with other competing browsers.

"We do cross-browser synchronization as well as cross-computer synchronization," Joaquin explains. "Someone who only wants to use the Chrome browser might be happy with the Google solution, [but] we know there are lots of users today who care about being able to switch between browsers, too."

Google's Broader Goals

Chrome's upcoming utility, thus far, only indicates support for synchronizing bookmarks -- not passwords or surfing history. With that being said, the does state that future goals include storing data "in a way that may be extended to additional data types."