Google Chrome OS - A year on

I, like many other people, followed Google's keynote last night very closely.

They started off by doing something that was surely influenced by Apple, which was boasting about Google Chrome previous success since it's release in 2008. And good for them! As a Chrome user myself, I can safely say that it is the best browser I have ever used. And they have 120 million users, which tells you something about it.

Then they talked about Google Instant, a feature which they recently implemented into Google Search. The idea being that the search results load as you type. So in Google Chrome, the webpage loads as you type in the URL. Simple stuff.

"Sandboxing", which is actually a very interesting concept. It's not an actual feature, rather a technology which runs updates seamlessly in in the background and prevents malware from reaching sensitive resources.

Next, Google previewed the long awaited Chrome Web Store. These are different from Mozilla Firefox's Add Ons which simply add functionality to the web browser, I would compare these more to an iPhone Application. The difference is, these apps are usually web-based and open-source. I can sort of understand why they are doing this. Many people criticised the fact that Chrome OS was "just a web browser". With the ability to add apps that run under the browser, it will keep its status of "Web Browser" but could be considered an OS.

As demonstrated below:

And on that topic, Google began talking about Chrome OS. They said that all Chrome devices will ship with cellular connectivity. And you will be able to print to any wireless printer using Google's CloudPrint (I wonder where they got that from...). The chosen cellular provider is Verizon which is offering very affordable packages and Google claim that it will work abroad as well.

They are pretty keen on keeping your system secure a seamless task as well. The system will be auto-updated in the background (like Sandboxing). The system core and most sensitive files will be read-only to ensure security.

Conclusion

Google OS, even with web apps and all that jazz, is still just a web browser. And Google know it. But truth be told, the world is (very slowly) moving in to the cloud (wherever that is...) and this could actually be the sort of OS we could be using day-to-day. But that's the future and right now, I don't think enough people have data in the cloud and there are lots that don't want it there at all. At the moment I don't think it's strong enough to compete with Windows and OS X.

Raffi