Google, well known for their online search engine, Android operating system, and Chrome browser which has overtaken Firefox and Safari for the first time globally, has something it is working on, something big. While it appears Google already has its hands invested in everything, they failed to provide in one department.
Back in 2009, Google developers realized that in today’s world, the majority of its users are on the computer primarily to use the internet. Consider your own computer usage. We spend 90% of our computer time on the internet whether checking our email, chatting, or watching videos; the web browser is the most used application on our computer. Attention spans are decreasing, as consumers demand faster start up times to access the things they want quickly, i.e. Email. The developers at Google thought, what if we got rid of all the startup process that make up the OS slow and sluggish? What if we turned the browser into the actual operating system? That’s just what they did. Google took its popular web browser Chrome, and turned it into an operating system; Google Chrome OS. Yes, that’s right; Google has made a launch into operating systems. This eliminates the need for programs to be installed on the physical computer as Chrome OS uses ‘Apps,’ or simplified bookmarks to become the main focus of the operating system. All the apps open in a Chrome browser, essentially meaning everything that runs, opens in the internet. The interface is a hybrid of Apple’s Lion OS and Windows 7. They took a lot of features from both to give the user the most user friendly experience they could. You’re probably thinking; everything is run from the internet? Not entirely, but that is focal point for Chrome OS. Google is trying to convince everyone that we can live in a world where is everything can be accessed from the web and there will no longer a need to physically store data on our computers. Chrome OS is proof that we are one step closer to this.
Check out this video that introduces Google Chrome OS: