LONDON: Software developers working on Google's popular Chrome browser are testing "radical" changes to its appearance.

Sources close to the company said the address bar currently takes up a significant amount of space that could be used for web browsing. One plan being considered would mean it was only visible when users made their mouse pointer hover over a specific part of the screen, the Telegraph reports.

The new "compact" navigation mode, described on the Chromium website as one of two key focuses for development, would take the web address bar out of each tab, releasing more screen space to display web pages.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9, which is available in a nearly final pre-release version, adopts a similar approach already. Chrome, however, is thought to be planning a significantly more stripped down version, working towards releasing almost the entire screen for web browsing.

More than 120 million users now use Google Chrome, which has been heavily advertised by Google. The company is also working on a 'Chrome OS' rival to Microsoft Windows.

Google updates Chrome every six weeks, but major upgrades tend to be far less frequent.