Can the Google Chrome OS rox our sox off?
Admittedly, I am a pretty big Microsoft Fanboy. I own an original Zune 30, I love Xbox and I think Windows 7 is the best thing since sliced bread. Bing is even my new default search engine! Yet right now, I type this post in Google Docs. I use Gmail to manage my personal domain email accounts, I adore Google Calendar and iGoogle is my web portal of choice.
Basically my point is, while I use a lot of Microsoft (among other companies) hardware and software, Google owns my web presence. I only switched to Bing search to change things up a bit. It was a chilling moment when I realized that nearly all of my online existence belonged to Google. They even house all the pictures I have taken of my daughter in my Picasa web album. Taking my searches away from them was the least that I could do.
Now we get news today of the new Google Chrome OS and I am floored. On one hand I am scared of letting Google also officially have my desktop but on the other, it is very interesting to see a major company like Google directly take aim at the giant mammoth of the OS world: Windows.
If you take a close look at Chrome, Google’s direction with the browser is extremely interesting.
- First, you can not block Ads in Chrome like you can in Firefox. This is very important for Google.
- Second, unless you make the effort to remove it, your entire search history and frequently visited sites are prominently on display and up for grabs. Data mining FTW! Another big plus for a company like Google.
- Third, the ironically “chromeless” application shortcuts you can create in Chrome give the appearance of locally installed apps when there are none. Google even goes as far as not letting you open up new tabs in their chromeless app viewers. Google has also gone the extra mile and made their most popular online apps (Gmail, Docs and Calendar) work seamlessly offline. So someone like my mom would never even realize that the neat Google Docs thing I installed on her computer is not actually installed at all.
The third point will essentially be the deal breaker with the new Google Chrome OS. If you are going to convince people like my mom and grandmother to use a new, non-familiar OS, it better work, especially when there is no Internet. Most non-avid computer users are not going to understand the concept of cloud computing, and even those of us embracing the cloud still need our apps when the net is unavailable.
Still, if anyone can pull it off, it’s Google. Consider this, by creating their own OS, Google gets to control everything. By using the Linux kernel there will be no viruses (for now), they will be able to ensure all the necessary drivers exist and the support will be there. Google will also ensure that unlike other Linux distros, this one will “just work”. I think we will see a lot of common Apple ideas being thrown out to describe the new Google Chrome OS:
It just works… There are no viruses… Its fast… Its simple and elegant… BUT ITS STILL A PC!
And it will be free.
What about issues of competition? One one hand if we start seeing most software design moving in the direction Google is pushing towards, programmers can create a single online web app and it will work on any platform, be it OSX, Windows, Chrome, Android or any flavor of Unix/Linux. That’s good for competition. But what about browser competition? As fast and sleek as Chrome is, I can not live without my Firefox plug ins. I am positive the new Chrome OS will not be supporting Firefox, Opera, IE or any other browser out there. We will see a monopoly of the desktop that trumps even Microsofts attempts at doing so.
Finally, what about privacy? In the new Google OS will they also track every mouse click I make, every web app I open and every keystroke I hit? Will their sophisticated algorithms piece together targeted ads based on phrases I use while chatting or typing up term papers for school? Why not, Gmail already kind of does that.
Regardless of the issues or trade offs, I think this marks the beginning of a paradigm shift in computing. A few weeks ago while I was taking a “staycation” I was watching Live with Regis and Kelly and at one point in the opening dialog, Kelly Ripa pulled out her iPhone and made the comment that she could do everything with it. That little phone was her primary PC. Consider that idea. A little phone is this persons primary personal computer. Google sees this and that is the market they are going after with Android and now the Chrome OS. Lightweight, simple and portable computing.
The OS wars are about to get interesting.