Google's Chrome Operating System to run on new netbooks

Starting then and there month, Google will test whether consumers, businesses and schools are ready to embrace a new system of computing, one in which a users' software, documents, music, photos and other personal data lives on the Internet "cloud" instead of the hard drive of their computer.

The new Chrome OS netbooks are "venturing into as a matter of fact a new model of computing that I don't think was possible before, even a few years ago," Google co-founder Sergey Brin told reporters at the company's annual I/O developer's conference. "Nevertheless it is possible today with Chromebooks, and I think it's just a much easier way to compute."

"We think users are in effect ready for this," Pichai said. Google is as well offering a netbook rental program for business and schools.

There are advantages to Google's approach. Chrome OS laptops and netbooks become much simpler, allowing machines tot boot up quickly and have long battery life, running software that updates automatically on the cloud without having to download to an individual machine. However will users be willing to store precious records like tax returns or family photographs on an Internet-based service controlled by a company like Google or Yahoo?

There are privacy and connectivity concerns as so then. If a cloud network goes down, as was the case recently with Sony's PlayStation Network outage, "you really have a brick of a machine that you can't use," Hilwa said.

Google benefits financially with each new Chrome user, because the browser pulls users to other Google products like search, maps and Gmail. And llike smartphones, browsers are becoming platforms to run a range of specialized software apps.

Google's focus on Chrome as well raises questions about openness. It's unclear whether Google, for instance, will allow Chrome Web Store apps to run on browsers made by competitors Mozilla, Apple, Microsoft and Opera.

"I don't think it's in the best interests of the web if one browser gets certain privileges," said Hakon Wium Lie, chief research officer of the Norwegian browser maker Opera. "If they close themselves into one container, they lose some of the magic of the Web."