Google Unveils Chrome OS, Moves Further Toward Cloud Computing

Google unveiled the beta version of its new Chrome operating system this morning, as well as an early test version of its branded netbook. Chrome OS is an attempt by the search giant to help drive computing to the cloud — and to the popular web-based services that have become Google’s forté.

The company’s release of its netbook OS comes after a year of development and at a time when cloud computing — and the simpler machines that access applications on distant servers rather than running them on a hard drive — seems to have passed a sort of tipping point of respectability. Google’s chief competitors (Microsoft, Apple, etc.) have been touting their own respective cloud-based approaches for almost two years now.

Chrome OS relies entirely on web-based applications for basic productivity tasks like mail, document editing, photo sharing, social networking and reading news. Its inner workings are based on Google’s own Chrome browser, which has been available for nearly two years. The premise is that one no longer needs to install software programs on a general-purpose personal computer and instead use web apps running on top of a lightweight and fast OS.

After booting the OS and signing in with a Google account, one can go to a Web Store and install single-serving apps that are enhanced versions of those already available on the web. The download-and-install option provides a few more convenient features, like the ability to answer e-mail, work on your docs and play games without a web connection.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt showed up at Tuesday’s event to drive home his belief that the time is right to release Chrome OS. “We finally have a viable third choice for an operating system on the desktop,” said Schmidt.

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Google Docs Infiltrates Microsoft Office

In the insect world, parasitic wasps inject larvae into certain caterpillars. The larvae feed on the caterpillars, turn them into zombies, and eventually devour them.

This may seem like an overly dramatic metaphor to use to describe Google's strategy for dealing with Microsoft, but the parallels are eerily similar. It's perhaps most evident in Google Chrome Frame, software that seizes certain page rendering functions from Internet Explorer 6 and replaces them with Chrome's JavaScript engine.

But it's also useful in understanding the technology Google acquired when it bought a startup called DocVerse in March. DocVerse made plugin software that enabled cloud-based collaboration in Microsoft Office applications Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

Google on Monday plans to re-introduce the DocVerse software under a new name, Google Cloud Connect. The software, available for Windows computers in a limited preview, provides a way to use Office applications as clients that connect to Google's cloud.

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"Users of Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 can sync their Office documents to the Google cloud, without ever leaving Office," wrote DocVerse co-founder and Google group product manager Shan Sinha in a draft blog post provided by Google. "Once synced, documents are backed-up, given a unique URL, and can be accessed from anywhere (including mobile devices) at any time through Google Docs. And because the files are stored in the cloud, people always have access to the current version."

Microsoft, understandably, would prefer that its customers choose its cloud. Last month, it took steps to encourage that choice with the beta launch of Office 365, a hosted service that combines Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online. Office 365 starts at $6 per user per month, which is still higher than the $4 and change it costs per month to use Google Apps For Business.

Google's enterprise group has long been aware that it's not always possible to convince companies or employees to give up Microsoft Office, particularly if the relationship goes back for decades. Many companies that have become Google Apps customers have also kept Microsoft Office licenses. The City of Los Angeles, for example, a prominent Google Apps customer, conducted a study that suggested 20% of its employees would continue to use Office.

Google hopes to encourage Office users to inject its Cloud Connect code into Microsoft's software, in order to win them over from the inside.

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