Hot on the heels of Google’s announcement that Gmail (and other Google applications) has finally emerged from beta comes a new bombshell: Google is fleshing out the Chrome browser to become a fully-fledged operating system. In the official Google blog, Google executives Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson laid out the strategy behind the new product. According to them, the OS will be fast, secure and designed to support Web applications.

I’m not really surprised by this news. People in the tech industry have gossiped about the possibility of a Google-powered operating system for a couple of years now. When Google Chrome debuted, several tech journalists pointed out that the browser wasn’t just fast — it worked well with other Google products like Gmail and Google Docs. In some ways, Chrome is already an operating system for Web-based applications. But it exists as an application running on top of another operating system like Linux, Windows or Mac OS.

The new product will be a true operating system as opposed to an application. Pinchai and Upson say that the new OS will have a Linux kernel and will be designed to connect the user to the Web as fast as possible. Once on the Web, the user will access the applications he or she needs. It sounds like the computer won’t host applications — the Web will. So the new Google OS will be like a Web-based operating system that depends upon cloud computing.

Google plans to install the new OS on netbooks starting next year. Again, this really doesn’t surprise me — there have been plans to offer netbooks running on Google’s Android OS for a while now. The blog post points out that Android and the new Chrome-based OS are two separate products. Android works well for handheld devices and very basic netbooks. But the new OS should work with everything from netbooks up to desktop computers.

I think launching the OS on netbooks is a logical starting point. Most netbooks have limited processing power and storage capacity. An operating system that uses the Web as an applications platform makes perfect sense for a netbook. I’m not quite sure about more powerful computers. Are we ready to give up machines that run native applications? Wouldn’t a Web-based operating system eliminate the need for a powerful machine in the first place? Why would I buy a state-of-the-art computer if the Web does all the heavy lifting?

If Google’s OS is a success, it could create a new market for inexpensive machines. Perhaps then we’ll see manufacturers compete not by producing more powerful devices, but by building more attractive computers. Imagine walking into a computer store where every machine has its own unique look. That might even cause Apple executives to worry.

Learn more about all things Google at HowStuffWorks.com:

How Google Works
How Gmail Works
How Google Docs Works
How Cloud Computing Works
How Web Operating Systems Work