Google Cr-48 Chromebook a peak into one-stop mobile solution

 

Google Cr-48 Chromebook a peak into one-stop mobile solution.

Huge tech companies like Google and Apple can do things that no other company can. They have enough money, resources, time to truly take a flutter. To try something new that the market hasn’t demonstrated an existing demand for. Even better, to tackle an idea that’s been kicking around for a long time but which no company could gamble on.

Google has taken the wraps off of the new Chrome Web Store and Chrome OS. We’re already familiar with the Chrome browser: it’s Google’s successful attempt to build a new browser built on speed and reliability. The new Store evolves Chrome into something more than just a container for content from your favorite websites. It turns this browser into a runtime environment for sophisticated desktop-style apps. And with Chrome OS, that simple browser window will become your entire operating system; your machine’s whole digital world.

But truly, Google’s big media event was all about the ambitious new Chrome OS. It’s not just a new operating system, but a new kind of operating system. It’s so different that it seems like it can only create a whole new form of popular computing, or fail miserably and blow away within a year of its release.

Which usually means that a company is truly on to something.

The Web Store is open right now. The idea is for Google’s Chrome API to give developers far more direct access to the power and features of your machine, and produce webapps that look and perform more like native desktop apps. The basic mechanism works just fine. I launched Chrome, searched the Store for Amazon.com’s new “Windowshop” shopping app, and it installed in one click.

Presto: instead of a conventional Amazon.com webpage, the Chrome window was displaying something more dynamic, pretty ... app-ish, for lack of a saner word.

Ah, but I noticed that the browser window was pointing to a “www.windowshop.com” URL. I opened that same address in Safari and saw ... exactly what I saw in the Chrome webapp. It’s the same deal in Firefox.

That’s the problem. Webapps that behave more like their desktop software are the main, marquee feature of the latest web standards. Even Steve Jobs spends a lot of time honking on about the power of open HTML5 standards to render proprietary plugins like Flash unnecessary.

How is Google going to convince users to switch over to Chrome, or make the necessary adaptations to their current browsers? Who cares: convincing web developers will be the real struggle. They can build webapps that specifically target Chrome, or they can build pretty much the same app that will run on Chrome and any other modern browser.

Google’s done this idea well, though. Your Google Apps homepage looks and works like the home screen on your phone or tablet. There’s a nice little lineup of clear, icons and your workspace remains consistent on every machine where you’ve logged into the same account. Install an app or a plugin in one place, and that’s your environment everywhere; your locally-installed apps and files don’t matter so long as you can connect to the apps and data you’ve got with your Google account via the Chrome browser.