Last night, nerves could be heard rattling in Redmond when Google confirmed long-suspected plans to launch its very own operating system. Chrome OS is being targeted at lightweight, inexpensive notebooks known as “netbooks.” But it’s worth noting that, in Google’s own words, “Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.” (Emphasis mine.)

Following the success of its Chrome web browser, Google says that a bare-bones operating system is the next logical step for them, representing an attempt to “rethink what operating systems should be.” It’s designed to have a minimal user interface, so that the majority of the user experience takes place on the web. And unlike other popular operating systems like Windows and Mac OS, Chrome OS will be open source, running atop a Linux kernel. The code is expected to be released later this year, with netbooks running the OS available in Q3 or Q4 of 2010.

Google says it intends to create something that’s “fast and lightweight,” so you can “start up and get onto the web in a few seconds.” This is just one of several jabs Google takes at Microsoft in the Chrome OS announcement, since Windows is known for its long start-up times, security issues, and elaborate routines required to configure new hardware. Chrome OS hopes to eliminate all of those problems, getting you onto the web in seconds, with simple software architecture that won’t require constant updates or succumb to viruses or malware.

But don’t let the PR fool you: Chrome OS is not so much an autonomous operating system, as it is a platform for promoting the Web itself — and Google’s library of Web apps, like Gmail, the Chrome browser, and Google Docs — as the ultimate operating system. This is a long-strategized move on Google’s part to go head-to-head with Microsoft, who it has always seen as its biggest competitor. (And Microsoft clearly feels similarly; have you seen the commercials for MS’ new Bing search engine, which essentially position it as the anti-Google?)

Google says it is “working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year,” though it stops short of naming who those manufacturers might be. Personally, I’m more interested in seeing where Chrome OS goes beyond netbooks. Does Google imagine desktops or traditional laptops being powered by Chrome OS? Or could there even be an entirely new range of devices in the works, which will be made possible only now, thanks to this software?

Are you interested in Google’s Chrome OS? Are you ready to abandon Windows or Mac OS for something that puts the emphasis on online computing?

Google Chrome logo: Copyright 2009 ©Google, Inc.

Jumping on your computer and quickly firing up your browser to search for something has become second nature to most of us. Opening your search engine of choice and throwing a couple of terms in the text box doesn’t take much thought. The question is are you fine-tuning your actions to get a manageable collection of results or are you pulling back a collection of haystacks looking for that one needle.

There’s a number of tips you can manage to add to your searching routine to help pull back that finer tuned section of results you’ve been looking for all this time. PC Magazine has an article that lists a variety of tips on succeeding with your searches.

Your first thought may be using a variety of operators in your searches to include, exclude or search for an exact phrase on the web. The PC Magazine article spotlights some other actions you can take to automate searches or remember some specific searches you make regularly as well.

Image: sxc.hu

I loaded Gmail tonight and was welcomed with a notice that there’s been a little bit of an interface change. They’ve added some AJAXy ability to drag and drop messages onto your defined labels to label the messages.

You can see the little handles on each message line on the far left side of the message. You can then drag the message on top of the label you want to apply to the message. Not the major improvement from their perspective, but I really like the fact they moved the labels up to be positioned right under the standard groupings of messages.

The one thing I’m not sure how I like yet, is that when I drag a message onto one of the labels it immediately archives the message out of my Inbox. I frequently will add labels to messages but leave them in the Inbox. That may take some getting adjusted to.

Early previews are coming in for the HTC Google Ion, the successor to Google’s first “G1″ phone, and for the most part, they’re good. Nearly everyone seems to agree that the Ion is an improvement from the G1 — with full touch-screen support — though everyone agrees it’s no iPhone killer. Take a look…

• Wired says the Ion is “faster, sleeker, and smarter” than its predecessor. They love the new 3.2 megapixel camera, the extended battery life, and the easy syncing “your entire life” to the phone instantly using your Gmail account. They also give kudos to the new version of Google’s Android OS. But the less tactile touch screen, the ancient web browser, and the sluggishness of app animations were turn-offs.
• CNET loves the “easy-to-use interface,” fast 3G speeds, and seamless Google app integration, but is disappointed by the Ion’s inability to fully sync with Outlook, poor video quality, and missing headset jack.
• Gizmodo is wild about the shape and weight of the Ion, the beefed up speed thanks to added ROM and RAM, and the not-quite-as-good-as-the-iPhone’s touch screen keyboard. But they lament the lack of a hardware keyboard and the space bar’s nagging habit of not registering your keystroke when typing fast.

There’s no release date yet for the HTC Google Ion, but we’ll keep you posted as more information becomes available!

Google Docs has expanded their features as they have now added .docx and .xlsx in the file formats they are supporting. These two formats are additional formats to their existing support — .doc, .ldt, .xls, .ods., .ppt, .csv, .html, .txt, .rtf, and other formats.

The upload button in the Docs List allows you to import the .docx and .xlsx file. The system would automatically convert the file for Google Docs.

Users would be able to open .docx and .xlsx from Gmail and Google search results and now from Google docs.

Google has created an all-in-one web interface called the Google Wave.

Google Wave was announced during Google’s annual I/O conference as a new communications platform. The Google Wave was built at Google Australia by engineers who create Google Maps. Google Wave combines e-mail, instant messaging, photo management and it’s other social networking applications on a single homepage.

We’ll see more from the Google Wave.

Image and news from PCWorld.

I heard a bunch of chatter this morning on twitter about a new application and service that’s under development by Google called Google Wave. My initial thoughts were how big of a deal is this? Google is regularly producing some great tools and products, but how much could communication on the web really change? The video below is of a presentation of Google Wave that was done at the Google I/O conference. It’s over an hour long, but it’s pretty impressive!

Image a merging of email, instant messaging, live updating, photo sharing, editing, cooperative document development and even more. Someone can be added to the conversation at anytime and can rewind the updates and see how messages were added in sequence to the stream of thought.

The tool can be embedded in websites, blogs, updated live in all places and all changes are displayed live. Private messaging, spell check, sharing, it’s all here. Oh, and it’s not using any new platform. It’s all running in current browsers with current technology, just some amazing development and coding from Google.

And all that is just in the first 30 minutes of the video above! Looking forward to see what else can be done. Like this, four people dynamically editing the same document and everyone seeing everyone’s updates concurrently.

What do you think? Will this really change communication online forever? I can easily see Gmail taking on the features and functionality of Google Wave as soon as it’s available.

More information about Google Wave:

• Product wave.google.com
• Platform code.google.com/apis/wave
• Protocol www.waveprotocol.org

When I started my computer earlier today I noticed something different along the very bottom of my monitor. It was something new in the Windows Start taskbar that I hadn’t seen before. Something had invaded my system and put something there I don’t remember asking for in the past.

There was a new button sitting right next to my "Start" button. I was familiar with the name on the button, as I’ve been generally pleased with my experiences using their products.

It appears in a recent update to my Google Toolbar, which I don’t remember approving automatic updates to my toolbars to be installed with no warning.

My first thought was "Do I really need to give Google anymore real-estate on my computer?" Particularly in my Start / Taskbar? However, I’ll give Google the benefit of the doubt here and see how I like it. Hoping I can remove it later, but I didn’t see any options for that at the time I was digging around in my toolbar settings for how the update got applied automatically.

When you click on the button you’re presented with the following options to choose from. I can see how this would be helpful.

My second thought was that with the ability to start programs and its similarity to the Windows Start button, could this be a foreshadowing of what a Google OS would start to look like?

Anyone else seen this and already using it? What do you think? I’ve got to say that I do love the Google Toolbar as it lets me access all my favorite items / bookmarks on the web, regardless of what computer I’m on.

Image Source: Snagit images from my personal computer. Earth image from www.sxc.hu.

Today I spent a little bit of time trying to figure out something that should be much more obvious than it is for the end-user. All I wanted to do was to export my Google Bookmarks so I could share a section with someone very easily in a list format.

Snagit of Google Bookmarks Functionality

If you click on “Manage all…” as shown in the image above, you get the general bookmark management screen, but nowhere on that screen is there any type of wording that would suggest how to quickly export your bookmarks to a file.

Here’s where it become a challenge for me. I didn’t want to export all of my bookmarks, just a subset of them that I had created. I clicked on the subset I wanted and then went to the “Tools” drop-down control in the top-right of the screen. Nothing would activate. Couldn’t figure out why.

I found this page letting me know that I could quickly download my bookmarks by just going to this link (http://www.google.com/bookmarks/bookmarks.html) on my computer.

What I’ve discovered later was that if you click on a subset of your links, the “Tools” function is no longer available. If you just click on your main bookmarks as a whole the “Tools” function is available and a single-click allows you to export quickly.

Export Google Bookmarks

The main reason I prefer using Firefox over other browsers is because of the extendability available through the use of the various Add-ons that can be downloaded to customize and enhance the browser for your own personal needs. I believe if Microsoft would increase this functionality and availability it would drastically improve their efforts. However, is the real challenge just because people aren’t developing extensions for IE like they do for Firefox?

Snagit of Firefox Add-ons Administration in Firefox

Here’s my list of preferred add-ons. I’ve grouped them by those that I use for business tasks and those that I use just as an extension and improvement of my browser experience. The ones I’ve bolded are those that I don’t think I could really live without and have become almost crucial to my online existence as I know it.

Browser User-Interface Improvements

• Better Gmail 2
• coComment
• Google Gears
• Google Notebook
• Google Toolbar for Firefox
• IE Tab
• New Tab Button Position (love this one but can’t find it anymore)
• Snagit Firefox Extension (available as part of Snagit)
• StumbleUpon
• Tab Scope
• Tab To Window

Business Tools and Features

• Alexa Sparky
• CodeBurner for Firebug
• ColorZilla
• Domain Details
• FireFTP
• Live Writerfox
• Web Developer
• Zemanta (just installed so still playing with this one)