14 DAY TRIAL // As expected, Google had a lot of exciting announcements at its Chrome-related event. Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management at Google, led the event which focused on three main topics, Chrome's progress in general and the launch of the Web Store and Chrome OS.
Each announcement will get its own coverage, as well as some of the more broader topics, but the biggest takeaway from the event is that, for Google, Chrome is no longer a web browser, or, rather, no longer just a browser.
While Google separated the different big topics at the presentation, they are all very much linked to the same thing, Chrome. There is no Chrome OS or Web Store without the Chrome browser and the browser itself has evolved to mean more than the app running on your desktop.
Much of the work in Chrome has been in providing an unified experience regardless of where you're using the browser. Chrome is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. There are four, slightly different, user interfaces as the team worked on integrating the browser with the underlying operating system so that it feels like a native app.
Yet, for the user, moving from a Mac to a PC doesn't really make much of a difference. With the number of sync capabilities built into Chrome now, bookmarks, themes, apps, extensions, auto-fill data and so on, you can pick up where you left of in a matter of seconds.
Granted, there are a few more steps before the transition is seamless, open tab sync is one example, but Google is getting close.
Chrome OS is an extension to that but it's not a completely new experience. Besides the obvious fact that you'll be running the same browser that you already use on your PC, many of Chrome OS' strengths are already available or close to being available on any platform.
One of the big advantages of Chrome OS is that it doesn't really matter what device you're using. You can switch from one netbook to another, one you've never used before, log in with your account and, in a matter of seconds, that netbook becomes yours.
Your themes, your apps, your settings and favorite websites and even your files will be ready for you. Yet, much of that functionality is already available in Chrome and you don't have to be using Chrome OS or a Chrome OS device to take advantage of it.
The same goes for the Web Store. While the store is crucial for Chrome OS, it's the only way to install applications close to what you're used to on your laptop and desktop, the store works just as well where ever you use Chrome. The apps you enjoy in Chrome OS will run on your Windows PC and your MacBook.
All of this is true for Cloud Print and countless other features. What Google is doing is making the operating system irrelevant, regardless of whether it's Chrome OS, Windows, Mac or Linux.
This is why the inevitable Chrome OS comparisons to any of the existing operating systems are going to be missing the point. Chrome OS is not about competing with Windows, it's about changing the way people use their computers on a fundamental level.
In fact, it's only the latest example of something that Google has been working on for close to a decade, at least since Gmail came about. It began with the number of web apps Google built to replace traditional applications, it continued with Chrome and spearheading web technologies meant more for applications than for websites, and continues now with Chrome OS and the Web Store.