Right after making a splash by removing the beta label from Google Apps, Google announced another surprise - they are in the early stages of developing a modern operating system based on their Chrome browser.

The OS will be more web-centric than Windows - meaning it will be open source, lightweight, and specially designed for people to get on the web instantly. Although Windows OS still holds 90% of the marketshare, it was “designed in an era where there was no web,” according to Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson of Google. Since modern users spend most of their computing time on the web, Google Chome OS will have the speed and simplicity to bring them online within seconds of turning on their machine. A minimal interface will eliminate the clutter and wasted time of security updates, while a reengineered security architecture will protect against viruses and malware.

Unlike Android, Google’s operating system for mobile devices, Chrome will function on computers both large and small. Both systems will run on netbooks, but Google is clear that Chrome is a separate project. Currently Google is in talks with certain as-yet unidentified computer manufacturers to create netbooks that will run on Chrome OS by late 2010.

Learn more by visiting Google’s Blog and the Google Chrome OS FAQ.