When Bing was annouced, it would appear all bets were off. Microsoft were making a serious effort to launch themselves into the search market. Now Google have taken their gloves off.
Last night it was announced that Google will be launching their own, lightweight OS that will make the web into a platform.
“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS” say Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director on the Google blog.
The OS, due to be released on netbooks next year is completely separate from Android, which was designed to work across an array of mobile phones and devices, and will be open-sourced later this year.
“It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be,” say the Google blogging pair.
The announcement of Chrome OS is bound to strike fear into the heart of Microsoft. For developers, the platform will be the web and applications can be designed in any number of languages and technologies. Such applications will automatically work with Chrome OS and will also be available in any browser window across the Microsoft, Linux and Apple operating systems.
Security is another big issue Chrome OS will tackle. Google are going back to basics to restructure the security of operating systems so that users don’t have to worry about viruses and hackers.
One step closer to an online world, Google’s head may be in the ‘cloud’ but their feet remain firmly on the ground.
Source: Google