What started as a revolutionary search engine has expanded into the web 2.0 scene, gracing the Internet with its slick design, streaming video services, social networking portals, and an abundance of online facilities. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the Internet is serious business for advertisers, and Google has taken advantage of its significant online presence with its largely successful Adsense advertising. The omnipotent nature of Google in the online arena gives it a financial and influential advantage over its competition – while competitors (notably Microsoft) scamper to take a foothold in this online phenomenon, attempting to snatch some of the revenue pie and make up what little ground they can on Google. It’s this online dominance that Google can use to step into the world of operating systems. And it will likely revolve around cloud technology.

Firstly let us explain the concept of ‘cloud computing’. In the future – and to an extent at this very moment – vast amounts of servers will be harnessed to store personal media, software, and documents in what is known as the ‘cloud’. The purpose of the cloud is to create an environment where any PC will be a portal to your personal data via the Internet medium. An example is Photoshop Express; albeit cut down, it’s an online version of Photoshop image manipulation software. As time progresses, software will continually port to online equivalents. The advantage being that alongside your documents, you can access everything you need from the Internet, and synchronise information (such as calendars) between devices (such as PDAs and laptops) across the globe. Google is in a prime position to promote the cloud concept, and what better way to tackle the emerging market than producing a dedicated cloud OS?

There are several possibilities that could be explored with a Google cloud OS, such as a desktop OS, U3 OS, or basic client software.