Google and their upcoming Chrome O/S is what the entire industry is currently talking about. Its an intriguing concept that may work at some level which is why Google is smart enough to debut it as a “Netbook” O/S in 2010. They’ll extensively test the market by targeting “light computing” while maturing their product into [...]
Google and their upcoming Chrome O/S is what the entire industry is currently talking about. Its an intriguing concept that may work at some level which is why Google is smart enough to debut it as a “Netbook” O/S in 2010. They’ll extensively test the market by targeting “light computing” while maturing their product into something that could possibly compete with the boys at Redmond. Remember how long Gmail was in beta? Google Apps also just come out beta while the Chrome browser is still being rapidly developed. Google knows how to test their products extensively.
There are some very interesting aspects about the Google Chrome O/S. While it will probably allow some form of native application execution, mostly it will be a browser driven concept. Think Google Chrome browser with Google Gears. For those who don’t know, Google Gears is basically Google’s framework of allowing a web application to be stored on your hard drive instead of fetching it from the Internet every single time you access it. To give you an example, let me illustrate my typical usage in a day.
I usually wake up and check my Email on my iPhone. If there is nothing urgent, I’ll get ready and head to the office and again, access my email when I sit down while having my coffee. I also fire up my instant messaging client and iTunes. During the course of the day, I will test out products and then write about them. Two years back, I was using Microsoft Word but now I use Google Docs simply because I know that I can access my docs from anywhere. Besides writing about a product, I will take some pictures and work on Photoshop to resize or enhance their colors. Once I have all the data, I will log onto my CMS to publish the article. In between, I will also be doing research on something or checking out the latest news etc. using a Web browser.
I could very easily see how I can work in a browser centric office. Photoshop and iTunes are the only two offline applications I use but there are plenty of online replacements for either of them- I’ve used a few and can see myself getting used to them. With Google Gears enabled, I could very easily continue using my applications during times when Etisalat fails to acknowledge any problem with the Internet. Things will probably get more interesting when an Android based Smartphone is later added to the picture where my “profile” could possibly be carried with me wherever I go- creating a perfect synergy.
I think Google is definitely on to something here. Sure, I might not be able to play World of Warcraft on the Chrome O/S but I’m already hearing of PC gaming somewhat moving to this kind of architecture as well- where your PC simply acts as an interface to a game that is actually being rendered on a far more powerful server somewhere on earth. With the amount of cash that Google is sitting on, they might just buy Blizzard and launch WoW for the Chrome O/S in that model- instantly attracting 12 million gamers. Yeah, I might be going off the tandem now so I’ll take my leave.
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