Tonight, on their blog, Google announced the start of a new project to create an operating system called Google Chrome OS.  This announcement follows nine months of success with their similarly named Internet browser, Chrome.  The company says this venture is “[their] attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.”  Definitely somewhat of a backhand to Microsoft and their Windows Operating System for sure.  Google continues by saying “the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.”

Chrome OS will be a lightweight, minimal configuration, open source operating system designed to operate on x86 and ARM processors.  Currently, the target platform is the netbook, but it will be designed to operate full-sized desktops as well.  Basically, Chrome will be using the web for an operating system.  Netbooks are the perfect platform for Google due to the variety of web-based applications they offer, including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and more.  Google continues:

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files.

We couldn’t agree more and up to this point, Apple is the only one to have done anything about it.  The execs at Microsoft should be losing sleep tonight as Google has “one upped” them time and time again in the past.  It’s going to be exciting to see what this massive change to the standard will look like in the end.  The bad news…you’ll have to way until the latter part of 2010 to see this new product launch.