Microsoft testing Xbox 360 Web browser - Report

The Xbox 360 may soon offer gamers a full, Kinect-compatible Web browser. Sources speaking to The Verge understand Microsoft is presently testing a modified iteration of Internet Explorer 9 to run on the popular home console.

The Xbox 360 presently supports Bing voice search via the Kinect, but only media results are returned. The site's sources indicate the Web browser currently in test will allow users to fully search and browse the Internet via Kinect gesture and voice control. Kinect will not be a requirement for the new Web browser, but the app is believed to be "tuned" for the motion-control technology.

No release date for Internet Explorer for the Xbox 360 was indicated, but Microsoft will make a number of Xbox 360-related announcements at its 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo media briefing in Los Angeles early next month. The arrival of a Web browser for the Xbox 360 may not be the only new addition to the platform. A Kinect exercise tracker is also believed to be on the way to the Xbox 360.

If Microsoft does add Web browsing support to the Xbox 360, it will do so lagging behind its competitors. Web browsers are currently available on the Wii, PlayStation 3, 3DS, PlayStation Vita, and PSP.