If you are like me, you bookmark a lot of web sites. Frequently it is just the discovery of something cool, useful, or perhaps just something to check out later. The problem however with bookmarks is that the content they link to can change and disappear over time. You can always manually clean out your bookmarks but now you have alternative option.
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There has been a lot of news lately about Google Chromium OS for the simple fact that it is sponsored by Google. The problem is that regular Joe consumer has no idea what he is actually getting with a Google OS. I have been using Chromium for about a week now and while it is still in early “preview”, it is hard to see it becoming mainstream.
This Ally Bank commercial is a perfect representation of a customer purchasing a netbook with Google Chromium OS when they could have gotten Windows 7:
Jump Lists are undoubtedly one of the most loved features of Windows 7 and thankfully software manufactures are starting to implement them as well. Google, not willing to let Microsoft have all the glory, has now brought this much loved feature to Chrome. You will need to download a development version to get this feature but it should be here soon in the standard version. Not to be outdone, Mozilla is working on adding this feature as well.
The real question is “Will the Google Chrome OS have this feature?”
A week ago Google announced their Chrome Operating System and the world quickly went into a furry over it. I as well as others have expressed anticipation, excitement, and concern, over the implications of such a thing. Whether it is being humorous or downright serious, one thing is for sure, Google would have too much control.
It really hit me today when I decided to login to my Google Finance account. I generally just use it to monitor some stock prices and one of my retirement accounts. In no way would I call this something that I rely heavily upon but as I logged in and saw the new interface I knew something was wrong. My default browser is Opera as it works the best for me, but now it does not work for Google. All of the beautiful little graphs and even the simple pages no longer displayed.
The only way to get many of Googles pages to work the way they are supposed to, is to use Google Chrome. While many of the pages are functional on other browsers there are still little things that are missing if you use the competitions browsers. What ever happened to Internet standards and general compatibility?
Microsoft is frequently accused of being anti-competitive and of having a monopoly but what about Google? Is their operating system going to take over to the point that we are all forced to use Chrome whether we like it or not? It is still a long ways away from being released and yet even now it is taking control.
For those that are in a coma today and have not yet heard, Google announced late last night they are releasing the “Google Chrome Operating System”. The idea is that the Internet Browser is the OS and for devices such as Netbooks it is all you really need.
At first Google sounds like a genius and don’t get me wrong, I am happy they are releasing a operating system but, did this whole idea come from Tech Crunch? Fans of Tech Crunch will know exactly what I am talking about when I say “CrunchPad”. It is basically a tablet computer that is in development by the Tech Crunch team. What makes this computer unique is that it’s running a very trim version of Linux with only Firefox as its interface.
When you realize that despite Google being Google, they have been beaten to the punch by a website just trying to make an awesome Internet browsing device. It is possible that the CrunchPad could even be loaded with the Google OS instead of the Tech Crunch designed operating system.
When thinking about a computer that I would give to my computer illiterate mother or even my grand parents the CrunchPad is way up at the top. It is incredibly simplistic with its Internet Browser interface and easy to use design. Is that what Google is going for here?
Maybe Google is just taking another shot at Microsoft as many websites suggest but I don’t personally believe that. While I would personally love to have a Google Chrome OS device I still could not be separated from my Windows machines. At the same time what about Google’s hand in hand relationship with Apple, would this damage it? I doubt that it would. For Google to be taken seriously by consumers and not just Geeks, they need to make the operating system and devices it runs on, attractive to every day users which the CrunchPad is doing.
At this point while I am loving the idea of a Google operating system I think I will opt for a CrunchPad running Firefox with its thousands of extensions rather than the Google OS with limited capabilities. On top of that the CrunchPad will be out this summer, possibly as soon as this month. By the time that the Google OS is released the CrunchPad will have already had at least a full year to improve their design and interface.
This video is not an official one and was taken down after it was first posted but it does show the potential of the device and just how an Internet Browser OS could operate.
