Will The Chrome OS Change The Way We View Computing and Search?

July 10, 2009

It’s an understatement to say that Google dropped a huge news bomb on us the other day, with the unveiling of Google Chrome OS. Since the announcement there has been all kinds of wild speculation as to what a Google backed open source OS means, and how it will effect the market.

Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management, made this statement in the official announcement post,

“Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

The interesting take away from the announcement, is how much the world of search is going to change with Google Chrome OS. Already, the internet has been taken over by the search engine. Now, our OS’s could potentially be dominated by the idea of search. I’ll leave you to ponder as to whether that’s a positive or negative.

Either way, as website owners and operators it’s vital to plan ahead and perhaps think of ways to take advantage of the potential change that Google Chrome OS will provide. For a good start, check out this article on Wired’s website.